The screenplay by Roy Chanslor, Dorothy Howell, and Charles Logue is based on the 1927 novel The Feathered Serpent by Edgar Wallace.

Englishman Ronald Quayle was accused of murdering his father and, based on testimony offered by his stepmother Caroline, was found guilty and imprisoned.

After undergoing plastic surgery, he returns home under the alias Robert Crockett, determined to prove Caroline and her lover Jack Utterson really killed his father.

Upon its completion, studio executives decided its title might mislead audiences into thinking it was an action adventure film instead of a murder mystery, so it was changed, first to The Squeaker and then The Menace.

[1][2] Andre Sennwald of The New York Times stated, "The imaginative adaptation and sorrowful dialogue are probably to blame for the shortcomings of this film, for the situation has elements of suspense .