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The Double Standard was partially inspired by Dope, a vaudeville sketch by Herman Lieb. As the title indicates, the film pointed in no uncertain terms how there is one set of rules for the rich and powerful and another for the poor and oppressed. And once pointed out, this premise was hammered into the audience's consciousness with the relentlessness of a power drill. Curiously, none of the various subplots in the film were truly resolved, leading viewers to wonder about the purpose of the whole affair. For the record, the principal antagonists in the film were a hard-bitten newspaper editor (Frank Brownlee) and his clergyman brother (Joseph Girard), with the hapless hero and heroine (Roy Stewart) and (Clarissa Selwyn) caught in the crossfire.