The film's plot shares with Korngold's masterwork opera Das Wunder der Heliane an examination of the afterlife and this probably explains why the score became Korngold's personal favorite of all the music he composed for the silver screen. But it is a very different type of film from those on which Korngold had previously worked. He wrote an evocative and mysterious score, and the film producer decided to deliberately mute the soundtrack in order to achieve a more ghostly and ethereal effect. Despite Korngold's protests (and partial success in getting at least some of the muting reversed) this detracts greatly from the overall effect of the music. The score is one of the composer's most personal and deeply felt creations, being written at a time when he was grieving over the recent death of his friend and mentor Max Reinhardt. The subject of death and the afterlife was thus an immediate concern to him and this brooding reflection comes out in the music.

© Tim Mahon, All Music Guide