A rare early forerunner of the music video, in which bass-baritone Jules Bledsoe is seen singing "Dear Old Southland", a song with new lyrics, but melody adapted from the famous spiritual "Deep River".
This film sticks very closely to the Edna Ferber novel, rather than the musical based on the novel. There are only two major changes from Ferber's book : *Julie in this version is a white woman, not a racially mixed one; therefore she and her husband are not unlawfully married. * Ravenal returns at the end, instead of dying as in the novel
The Columbia-Victor Gems series was Columbia’s answer to Warner Bros.’ Vitaphone shorts, often featuring vaudevillians or musical performers in a short sketch or musical number. Old Man Trouble stars concert singer Jules Bledsoe, best-known for creating the role of Joe in Kern and Hammerstein’s Showboat, which had just concluded its Broadway run at the time this film was made.