Views of Chicago's wharves and railroads preface the film.
       According to an item in the 20 February 1915 Moving Picture World, Broadway producer William A. Brady joined Lewis J. Selznick's new distribution company, World Film Corporation, to adapt his successful plays into four- and five-reel feature films, using the original stage actors in the roles they created. In the case of The Pit, Wilton Lackaye reprised his role of "Jadwin" from the Broadway production. Brady's new production company, William A. Brady's Picture Plays, incorporated in Wilmington, DE, began with a capitalization of one million dollars, the 21 February 1914 Motion Picture News originally reported. He chose this moment to branch out into films because the motion picture medium had gone "beyond its experimental stage."
       An item in the 28 November 1914 Moving Picture World noted that director Maurice Tourneur had helmed several of William A. Brady's films, including The Pit at his own Peerless studio in Fort Lee, NJ. A week earlier, the 21 November 1914 Motion Picture World had reported that "plans are being laid out to secure 500 supers for the big scene of 'The Pit,' and when the time comes to take these scenes, William A. Brady will direct the work of rehearsing them and placing them so that the camera shall get the best possible efforts. It may be well to add that Mr. Brady directed the original [stage] presentation of 'The Pit' with Wilton Lackaye as the star." The 12 December 1914 Motion Picture News added, "The biggest interior scene ever made anywhere was produced at the World Film studio at Fort Lee, New Jersey, on Saturday, November 28, by Director Maurice Tourneur. It was the board of trade scene.... Five hundred men took part in the picture, and Director Tourneur secured the services of sixty brokers from Wall Street, the New Street curb, the Consolidated Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange. These brokers were under the direction of P. C. Mullen, 51 Exchange Street. Several of the brokers had bought and sold wheat in the very pit which was being reproduced for the camera in the pit scenes. Forty Western Union and Postal messenger boys were used to add to the realism of the settings. Wilton Lackaye recently made a special trip to Chicago and took special scenes on the floor of the famous wheat pit there, in order to obtain the exact atmosphere for the spectacle." In his review in the 2 January 1915 Motion Picture News, Peter Milne added that, following the introduction of the cast members at the beginning of The Pit, "several panoramic views of the city of Chicago are flashed on the screen, the city being the locale of the story."
       In his review for the 2 January 1915 Moving Picture World, George Blaisdell wrote, "There are two interiors of pictorial and spectacular value uncommon even in these days of big productions. These are the scenes of the opera house and of the operators in the pit of the Chicago Board of Trade....The views of the speculators fighting in the pit are the best this writer has seen. They are a bit prolonged, but by no means do we imply that they tire. There are hundreds of men employed in them, and in but one instance—where a path is somewhat prematurely cleared for Jadwin—are they other than what might be expected on a smashing day in wheat. It was a real battle, and it must have seemed so to every participant."