Rob Craig suggests that the film could be in part based on an earlier work, "Sucker Money" (1933), produced by Willis Kent. The two films have significant similarities in concept. In the earlier film, Swami Yomurda (Mischa Auer) and his minions stage an elaborate scheme to extort money from gullible victims. Yomurda and his group use technological means to convince their victims that they are receiving audiovisual from the otherworld. Craig himself, however, notes that "Night" cannot be conceived as a straightforward remake, since Wood used the same template to tell a quite different story from the 1930s melodrama.