According to the 12 February 1916 Moving Picture World, actress Marguerite Leslie, director Harry Handworth, writer Roy L. McCardell, and Equitable business manager William Stoermer journeyed to Saranac Lake in upstate New York "and mapped out the precise spots they deemed best for the producing of McCardell's story." A month later, a company of thirty was filming there, the 4 March 1916 Moving Picture World reported. Interiors were done at Equitable's Flushing, NY, studios, according to an item in the 22 January 1916 Motography. At the time, the film was being advertised under the title The Pain Flower.
       The 5 February 1916 Motography noted that McCardell wrote the first four-fifths of the scenario for The Pain Flower in four weeks, "then required two months to complete the final reel. During that time he changed the denouement eight times, and rewrote the story seven times." The title change came about during this rewriting phase because the story had become "sufficiently virile" to need a more "formidable title." A Variety reviewer, puzzled by the final film, questioned whether McCardell, primarily known for writing comedies, had originally intended The Question as such, but the director "didn't see it that way" and turned it "into a serious drama."
       Marguerite Leslie was a popular Swedish-born stage actress who made very few pictures. Although Equitable promoted The Question as her first film, it was actually her second, following Jim the Penman (1915, see entry).
       The National Film Preservation Board (NFPB) included this film on its list of Lost U.S. Silent Feature Films as of January 2021.