Mary Pickford gave each child an engraved silver pencil as a gift. Each child was also assigned a crew member to fish them out of the gunk when the shot was canned and make sure the kids were cleaned up and made comfortable in warm towels when they emerged from the swampy water.
Although William Beaudine received critical acclaim both inside and outside the film industry for his direction of this film, for many years a story circulated that star Mary Pickford felt that he was too cavalier about the safety of the actors, especially in a scene where she had to carry a baby across some water filled with alligators (Pickford wanted to use a doll, but Beaudine insisted on using a real baby). Pickford swore that he would never work for her or her company as long as she lived. However, cameraman Hal Mohr, who shot this picture, said in an interview that the "alligator incident" never happened. He said "There wasn't an alligator within ten miles of Pickford! Do people think we were crazy?" Mohr explained that the studio would never have let a star of Pickford's magnitude endanger herself by working with real alligators, let alone allow a baby to go near them. The effect, Mohr said, was done as an intricate double exposure, with the live alligators filmed at one time, and Pickford and the children filmed at another time. In any case, Beaudine and Pickford did clash on the picture. Beaudine eventually walked off the set and turned the direction over to his assistant, and he and Pickford never worked together again.
Mary Pickford developed a great fondness for two-year-old trouper Mary Louise Miller, and they remained friends for the rest of their lives. A publicity story claimed that Pickford, who had no children of her own, had even offered $1 million to adopt the toddler, but her parents refused. Because of this story, the press dubbed Miss Miller as "The Million-Dollar Baby."
Toward the end of filming, director William Beaudine and star Mary Pickford clashed so often that Beaudine developed a serious paralysis of his face from the pressure and aggravation due to their frequent arguments. He finally turned the picture over to his assistant, Tom McNamara and left the set. McNamara, uncredited, finished the picture.