The film was shot in five days after six weeks of rehearsal. Director Edgar G. Ulmer said in an interview that the producers raised the money ($8,000) for the film by hocking furniture. When the film laboratory threatened to foreclose on the film because they hadn't been paid, the head of the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union, David Dubinsky, purchased 75,000 tickets in advance, after he saw and liked a rough cut of the film.
The play opened off-Broadway in New York City, New York, USA in 1918. Jacob Ben-Ami was a member of the 1919 New York stage production and was made co-director at the insistence of writer Peretz Hirschbein, who felt he could see that the film was faithful to the play.