Reginald Owen, having previously played Dr. Watson, hoped with this film to initiate a series of Sherlock Holmes films with himself as Holmes. This was the only film made with Owen as Holmes.
Although the movie is credited as having been "suggested by the book by A. Conan Doyle," in fact, the plot is very different from that of the novel itself, which first introduced the character of Sherlock Holmes to the general public. Even the characters other than Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are not the original ones that appeared in the story.
Bears no relation in plot to Arthur Conan Doyle's original novel of the same name, as the producers purchased rights only to the title, not the storyline of Doyle's book.