An item in the 5 July 1924 Exhibitors Herald announced Dynamite Smith as the first of four pictures set to star Charles Ray for Pathé Exchange, Inc., in the 1924-1925 season. By mid-July 1924, Pathé publicity head E. F. Supple had organized a national publicity campaign for the film to appear in several prominent U.S. newspapers, as stated in a 19 July 1924 Exhibitors Herald brief, which also noted that principal photography was “well under way” at Thomas H. Ince Studios in Culver City, CA. The following week, an item in the 26 July 1924 issue reported that cutting and editing had begun. An article in the 26 August 1924 Los Angeles Times later mentioned that a “pedigreed police dog” named “Val” had been appearing in the picture when its owner’s aged, confused father accidentally gave the dog away to a motorist; despite a search, the dog had not been recovered.
       Theatrical release occurred on 12 October 1924, as indicated by a release guide in the 1925 Film Daily Year Book. The 10 November 1924 Los Angeles Times review of the film’s 8 November 1924 opening at the California Theatre in Los Angeles called it a “smashing comeback” for Ray, adding that only a small portion of the audience appeared to be disappointed that the role of “Gladstone Smith” strayed from the country bumpkin types Ray was known for playing. Other contemporary sources echoed the sentiment that Dynamite Smith marked a comeback for Ray, whose last production, The Coursthip of Miles Standish (1923, see entry), had been a massive box-office failure and financial loss for Ray, who had invested his own money in the costly period piece.
       Two months after theatrical release, a 15 December 1924 New York Times item claimed that Ray was poised to sign a production deal with a group of unnamed, Chicago, IL-based capitalists which would make him the highest paid actor in Hollywood, earning $100,000 per picture. The following year, Ray’s production company was forced to declare bankruptcy. The actor was never able to reclaim the star status he had achieved earlier in his career.
       The National Film Preservation Board (NFPB) included this picture on its list of Lost U.S. Silent Feature Films as of February 2021. However, a print was discovered in film historian and collector David Wyatt's personal collection after his death in 2022.