Trivia

Verdoux's quote "One murder makes a villain; millions a hero" is taken from the abolitionist Bishop Beilby Porteus (1731-1808).

Based on real-life convicted French murderer Henri Désiré Landru, who was executed by guillotine in 1922.

The film was a colossal box-office flop on its 1947 release, despite being ardently championed by writer-critic James Agee, who considered Sir Charles Chaplin's acting performance the greatest male performance he had ever seen in films.

Before production started, approval was refused by the MPPDA (now the MPAA) under the Production Code (Hays Code), labeling the scenario, still called "A Comedy of Murders", "unacceptable". They continued, "In his indictment of the 'system' and the 'social structure', the filmmaker offered a 'rationale' of Verdoux's crimes, in terms of their moral work." Worst of all, the board also considered Verdoux's attitude toward god "blasphemous". In a letter of response, scene by scene, Sir Charles Chaplin upheld his screenplay against the charge of subversion, only giving in on details. For example, when one of Verdoux's wives invites him to "come to bed", the line had to be replaced with "get to bed". Chaplin had no trouble getting around such proscriptions, as he did with Verdoux's morning-after humming with briskly engaging music. The production board complied and gave this film a seal of approval.

The film originated with Orson Welles, who approached Charles Chaplin about starring in it, but Chaplin refused, saying that he only wanted to appear in films directed by himself. However, he was intrigued by the idea and instead bought the idea from Welles and re-wrote it; Welles had written a very rough draft which was greatly altered and was credited only with the "idea". Welles later said that Chaplin's script had been "much less funny" and that he had only gained his credit when Chaplin had realized that the film was going to be widely disliked, and thus wanted to have someone else take at least part of the blame.