The 15 May 1915 issues of Moving Picture World and Motion Picture News announced that Reliance had begun work on Pillars of Society as a four-reel drama for the Mutual Master-Picture program. Mary H. O'Connor wrote the scenario, George Nicholls was directing, and Henry Walthall, Mary Alden and Ralph Lewis were the stars. It was being filmed at D. W. Griffith's Reliance-Majestic studios in Hollywood, CA. The 29 May 1915 Reel Life noted that R. A. Walsh had replaced Nicholls. Ralph Lewis at some point left the production, and appears to have been replaced by George Beranger.
       The 12 June 1915 Motion Picture News reported that "a large ocean liner was leased for several days, and scenes made several miles out from the coast of a schooner burning and women and children being rescued from the vessel. The camera was located on top of a light house and secured some very exceptional scenes."
       The Reliance-Majestic studios on East Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood became the Fine Arts Studio in late 1915 or early 1916. Pillars of Society was withdrawn from the Mutual program before its scheduled release, and wasn't issued until the following year, when Triangle, a partnership formed by D. W. Griffith, Thomas Ince, and Mack Sennett, put it out. The length was extended from four to five reels, and the original scenarist, Mary H. O'Connor, was not mentioned in studio press releases.
       In the 12 August 1916 Motography, reviewer Thomas C. Kennedy remarked that the film, "laid in Norway, has an impressive atmosphere, the selection of types, locations and interior settings showing great care and fine judgment on the part of director R. A. Walsh." However, according to Wid's, "A year or more ago, when this film was produced, it would have been considered a very fine production had it been released. Today, the lack of close-ups, the failure to use artistic effective lightings, and the playing of entire scenes too far from the camera marked this as a just-good film."
       Pillars of Society opened at New York's Eighty-first Street Theater the week of 27 August 1916, the 9 September 1916 Moving Picture World noted.
       The Thanhouser Co. made a short film of Henrik Ibsen's play in 1911, and Douglas Sirk directed Stützen der Gesellschaft, a German adaptation of the play, in 1935 for R. N. Film der Ufa.
       According to the Library of Congress American Silent Feature Film Survival Database, this film is extant.