It lost the Best Picture race toThe Great Ziegfeld (1936), a lengthy, less-impressive "musical" biography.Director J.Lee Thompson directed this film and the fifth and final installment in the original five-film series franchise.had produced throughout he 30s - many of which starred Paul Muni (Disraeli (1929),The Story of Louis Pasteur (1935),The Life of Emile Zola (1937),Juarez (1939), andKnute Rockne - All American (1940)), and was the first in another series in the 40s of biographies of composers (Rhapsody in Blue (1943)- George Gershwin,This is The Army (1943)- Irving Berlin, andNight and Day (1946)- Cole Porter).Alexander Golitsyn was identified as arriving on the stairway, after which Sarah sprayed the back of his head with invisible yellow dye, to "mark" him (the glowing, flourescent mark could only be seen with special viewing glasses, worn by Hannah, who watched from her vantage point at the top of a staircase).