The film and the earlier musical comedies are based on a popular cartoon character Old Bill, an Cockney-born British infantryman, drawn by Bruce Bairnsfather.
The second filmed version of the hit musical comedy that was originally performed on the London stage, while World War I was still raging, in 1917. It ran for 811 performances.
The title, spoken in a Cockney accent, refers to: "The Better Hole" - as in foxhole in World War I.
The play upon which this film is based, "The Better 'Ole, or the Romance of Old Bill" opened in New York at the Greenwich Village Theatre on October 19, 1918 and ran for 353 performances until October 4, 1919.