The film's supporting cast included Elmo Lincoln, Nigel De Brulier, Harry Von Meter and Lon Chaney.

[7][8] Kaiser Wilhelm II of Hohenzollern (Rupert Julian) is a vain and arrogant tyrant eager for conquest.

[9] Writer Elliott J. Clawson later went on to write the screenplays for several other Chaney films, including The Phantom of the Opera, The Road to Mandalay and West of Zanzibar.

[9] Some reviews at the time oddly mentioned Erich von Stroheim's involvement in the film as both a co-writer as well as an uncredited extra, but this is unproven.

Universal studio head Carl Laemmle pushed the film to the theater owners as hard as he sold it to the viewing public.

It combines a wonderful characterization of the Kaiser rendered by Rupert Julian and an intimate drama of one family who suffered when the German hordes swept through Belgium."

--- Motion Picture News[9] "The main intent of the producers, and they have adhered to it admirably, was to give the observer a look at the private and public life of this human monster...Mr. Julian's personal dilineation of the Kaiser is a splendid bit of acting all told...There are any number of bold and vigorous characterizations in the piece (including) Lon Chaney as Admiral von Tirpitz."

It shows the invasion of Belgium, the wreck of the Lusitania and the attempted drive toward Paris all guided by a fiend in a royal helmet and spiked moustache who does everything but snort fire.