Many in Hollywood were nervous that one of their most famous peers was going to tackle the subject of WWI. It was released shortly before the Armistice, so it did not help boost national morale, but it did end up as one of Charles Chaplin's most popular films and it was particularly popular with returning doughboys.
Released two weeks and one day before the end of World War I.
Originally planned at five reels; outtakes were preserved in Charles Chaplin's private collection. True Boardman, Marion Feducha, and Frankie Lee played Chaplin's sons in cut domestic scenes intended for the beginning of the film. Peggy Prevost and Nina Trask played draft-board clerks, Alfred Reeves a draft-board sergeant, and Albert Austin a doctor in a cut scene at the draft-board office.
Considered the first comedy film about war.
Chaplin's fellow director, the German Ernst Lubitsch, once said that this was the best film depiction of World War I.