It is disputed who directed the film; many sources credit Bertram Bracken, while others list St. Elmo as J. Gordon Edwards's directorial debut.

Despite mixed reviews, the film was financially successful, reportedly setting box office records.

Twenty years later, the ingenue Edna Earle is traveling by train, hoping to find employment in a cotton mill after the death of her father, the village blacksmith.

[5][7] Although there was considerable interest in a theatrical adaptation, Evans was concerned about how the novel's themes would be portrayed on the stage and did not approve the first script for a St. Elmo play until 1909.

[9][10] In 1914, while working for the Balboa Amusement Producing Company, William Jossey wrote the screenplay for the first feature-length film adaptation.

[11] Contemporary writers credited Bertram Bracken as director,[13][14] as do some modern sources, including the American Film Institute.

[25] The new company continued to distribute some Box Office films, including St. Elmo,[26] which played in some areas into 1916.

Writing for Motion Picture News, A. Danson Michell found the film superior to stage adaptations of the novel, and especially praised the photography.

[2] Moving Picture World's Hanford Judson also gave a generally positive review, believing that its production qualities and popular appeal more than compensated for the "artificiality" of a few scenes.

Vanderheyden Fyles of Movie Pictorial felt the Long Beach scenery lauded elsewhere was irrelevant to the plot and the adapted story was a "baffling mix-up".

[33] The following year, Bertram Bracken directed a film adaptation of another Augusta Jane Evans novel, Beulah (1859), for Balboa.