Martin and Deborah return to South Dakota and Linda kills her father in revenge for his role in destroying her marriage.

[1] The Betrayal marked Micheaux’s return to filmmaking after an eight-year absence following the release of The Notorious Elinor Lee (1940).

[4] Micheaux named his male lead Martin Eden in honor of the eponymous hero of the Jack London novel.

Leroy Collins, a non-professional actor, was cast in the role when he came to the Chicago set seeking work as a stagehand and was spotted by one of Micheaux’s assistants.

She had appeared in Ebony magazine in her teenage years and had only acted in school plays when Micheaux's wife, Alice B. Russell, called Stanton's mother with an invitation to audition for the film.

[1] The Betrayal was the first race film to have its premiere in a Broadway venue in New York City, with reserved-seat screenings at the Mansfield Theatre.

[7] Reviews of the film were overwhelmingly negative, with The New York Times complaining of "sporadically poor photography and consistently amateurish performances" within a story that "contemplates at considerable length the relations between Negroes and whites as members of the community as well as partners in marriage.