Producer Samuel Goldwyn made the film to showcase Ukrainian actress Anna Sten, his newest discovery.

Dmitri, now engaged to Missy, the daughter of the wealthy judge, Prince Kortchagin, is called for jury duty in Kotchagin's court for a murder trial.

[1][3][4][5] Cast notes: Unlike many films concerning illicit sex made in the 1930s, We Live Again, which had the working title of "Resurrection", met with the approval of the censors at the Hays Office.

Joseph Breen wrote to Will H. Hays: "Though dealing with a sex affair and its attendant consequences, the story has been handled with such fine emphasis on the moral values of repentance and retribution, as to emerge with a definite spiritual quality.

The opening sequences depict the Russian peasantry as they appeared in the 19th century during which Tolstoy's Resurrection is set as well as during Mamoulian's youth, in the final years of the Romanov czarist regime.

The cinematography, by Gregg Toland emulates post-revolutionary Soviet films of Sergei Eisenstein and Alexander Dovzhenko[9][10] “From the outset, one is translated into the feel and smell of an alien land in a montage of eight brief, low-angled shots which effortlessly capture the glistening, sensuous luster of Dovzhenko’s vision of a new, burgeoning land.”[11] Critic Andre Sennwald of the New York Times dismisses producer Samuel Goldwyn claims to having “discovered” Anna Sten and acknowledges her “distinguished background” in Soviet State Theatre as well as Russian and German cinema.

Milne is untroubled by the lack of historical rigor in Mamoulian adaption of Resurrection, but finds that he “perfectly captures” the duality of the Russian character: “For once one is not embarrassed by a Hollywood attempt to capture Tolstoy’s revolutionary ardors and peasant simplicities.”[17][18] Milne is less approving of the second half of the film, in which Mamoulian seems to have somehow lost his momentum.