The black-and-white film, which featured the cast and crew from the 1937 hit Terang Boelan (Full Moon), was a commercial success and received positive reviews upon release.

Gagak Item was directed by brothers Joshua and Othniel Wong; filming the work in black-and-white, they also handled sound editing.

The film, a love story, followed a girl and a masked man known as "Gagak Item" ("Black Raven")[2] and was set in rural Buitenzorg (now Bogor).

[a][3] The titular bandit was similar to Zorro, a character popular in the Indies at the time; such figures had been a staple of travelling theatre troupes beginning in the early 1930s.

When writing the script Saeroen continued the formula he had used in Terang Boelan, including action, music, beautiful vistas and physical comedy.

[3] Gagak Item was released in late 1939 and was screened in Batavia (now Jakarta), the capital of the Indies; Medan, Northern Sumatra; and Surabaya, Eastern Java.