The upcoming release was announced in the 28 Nov 1914 and 19 Dec 1914 issues of Motion Picture News. Principal photography took place during the summer of 1914 at supervisor Thomas H. Ince’s 18,000 acre ranch in Santa Ynez Canyon on the western edge of Los Angeles, CA.
       An article in the 3 Apr 1915 Reel Life detailed a sequence in which lead actor William S. Hart demonstrated his equestrian skills by making his horse, Midnight, spin on command and push co-star Herschel Mayall forward. No delays reportedly occurred while filming the scene, which was shot on a ridge above Santa Ynez Canyon.        According to the 10 Apr 1915 Reel Life, actor Robert Edeson arrived on the set with a bear skin from his home in Sag Harbor, NY, offering it as a prop; the skin was used to adorn a wall on the dancehall set. William S. Hart also contributed a personal item to the production: a buckskin vest given to him by his father fifteen years earlier, which the actor wore on camera.
       On the Night Stage opened on 25 Apr 1915 to a glowing review in the 24 Apr 1915 Motography. According to the 22 Jan 1916 Motion Picture News, censors for the Canadian province of British Columbia were less enthused and ordered numerous edits to the film, including the removal of a climactic fight sequence. The result was described as “little more than a conglomeration of detached scenes.”
       The scenario was adapted as a short story by Robert Keene for the 22 May 1915 Picture-Play Weekly.
       Three years later, the 18 May 1918 Moving Picture World reviewed the film under its revised title, The Bandit and the Preacher, noting that it was a reissue. An article in the 4 Apr 1919 Var suggested that this fact may not have been readily apparent to all, as the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) had charged distributor Joseph Simmonds with fraud. Simmonds, doing business as W. H. Productions, was accused of distributing Hart’s early pictures under new titles without informing the public of their reissue status. The 23 Aug 1919 Exhibitors Herald and Motography reported that the FTC ordered Simmonds to terminate the practice, which it considered to be an “unfair method of competition.”