The off-screen chemistry between Sir Charles Chaplin and Jackie Coogan was just as strong as their onscreen relationship. Every Sunday, during the first few weeks of filming, Chaplin would take Jackie to amusement parks and pony rides and other activities. Some have seen Chaplin's relationship with Coogan as an attempt for Chaplin to reclaim his own unhappy childhood, while others have interpreted Chaplin's attention toward the boy as recasting Coogan into the child he had just lost.
Sir Charles Chaplin and Jackie Coogan met for the last time in 1972, during Chaplin's brief return to America for an Honorary Academy Award.
The production company tried to cheat Sir Charles Chaplin by paying him for this six-reel film what they would ordinarily pay him for a two-reel film, which was about $500,000. Chaplin took the unassembled film out of state until the company agreed to the $1.5 million he was supposed to be paid, plus half the surplus profits on rentals, along with reversion of the film to him after five years on the rental market.
The portrayal of poverty and the cruelty of welfare workers are reminiscent of Sir Charles Chaplin's own childhood in London. This makes it the most autobiographical film he ever made.