“Just as Ufa had almost convinced that it’s new dubbing system is the answer, along comes this film to lessen the hope. A beautiful picture, finely made, and with tremendous selling possibilities -but the dubbing in English is so bad that it loses all chance of building to grosses that mean anything.

And this film really didn’t need dubbing. It’s more than 50% silent anyway, with only an occasional sentence here and there. The original German couldn’t have hurt. With the English words indistinct and impossible to understand, it’s a bad blow”.

Kauf., Variety, 1. 9. 1931

“In 1929 Der weisse Teufel marked the sound revolution in Germany and with it the end of film production in Russian colonies. Only a few managed to settle for long stretches of time: Vladimir Sokolov, Stanislavskij’s pupil, was a character actor in high demand until 1933, when he emigrated again; producer Rabinovitsch worked in Germany unitl 1936. The majority of the ones coming from France went back there and find again new alliances – especially after many of their German colleagues had to migrate in their turn – for example to Prague in Barrandov’s studios.”

Jörg Schöning, Vom Russen-Club zum Russenkult, in Fantaisies russes. Russische Filmacher in Berlin und Paris 1920-1930, München, Text + Kritik