Screenwriter Lester Cole says it was unclear why Universal chose to make the film, although it may have been because the book was in the public domain. Film historian Don G. Smith, however, argues for an economic reason: Horror films were popular again. A national outcry against the gruesomeness of the 1935 film The Raven had convinced Universal Studios executives to place a ban on the production of horror films at the studio. But a New York City movie theater ran a triple-bill of Dracula, Frankenstein, and Son of Kong in 1938, and ticket sales were so strong that the theater ran the films 21 hours a day. Universal swiftly lifted its ban, and began production on a series of horror pictures: Son of Frankenstein, Sherlock Holmes and the House of Fear (aka The House of Fear), Black Friday, The Invisible Man Returns, The Mummy's Hand, The Invisible Woman, and The House of the Seven Gables.
