In public domain since 1966 when United Artists (successor to Associated Artists Productions) failed to renew the copyright within the 28-year period.
The globe on the cover of Pearl S. Buck's book "The Good Earth" requests blessings for people in his family, including "Papa Leon and Uncle Ray." This is in reference to Leon Schlesinger, who was the executive producer of the Warner Brothers Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies cartoons up until 1944, and Raymond Katz, Schlesinger's brother-in-law, who also worked in the cartoon studio.
Among the many entertainment personalities caricatured in relation to book titles are: Bill Robinson/The Thirty-Nine Steps, Greta Garbo/So Big, Cab Calloway, Fats Waller, The Mills Brothers/The Green Pastures, William Powell/The Thin Man, Clark Gable/The House of the Seven Gables, Paul Muni/The Story of Louis Pasteur, Charles Laughton/Mutiny on the Bounty, Victor McLaglen/The Informer, W.C. Fields/So Red the Nose [sic], and Ned Sparks/Rip Van Winkle.
The film parodies the play "The Green Pastures" (1930) by Marc Connelly, in a scene involving African-American angels. The play depicts events of the Old Testament, as seen through the eyes of an African-American child.
The film depicts an invisible man, inspired by Griffin, the Invisible Man. He is the eponymous protagonist of the novel "The Invisible Man" (1897) by H. G. Wells (1866 - 1946). In the novel, Griffin is a scientist who renders himself permanently invisible. He then becomes criminally insane).