"Lux Radio Theater" broadcast a 60 minute radio adaptation of the movie onMay 29, 1944 with Miriam Hopkins reprising her film role.
Bette Davis personally requested the casting of Norma Shearer in the role of Mildred Drake. Shearer refused the role and the part went to Miriam Hopkins.
Vincent Sherman wanted Eleanor Parker for the role of Deidre, but the studio stuck with original director Edmund Goulding's choice of Dolores Moran for the part.
According to director Vincent Sherman, the only comment Bette Davis made about her character before filming was that she might use a cigarette holder. Miriam Hopkins' scene in the hotel room was shot first and she deliberately used a long holder to thwart Davis' character idea.
In one scene, an enraged Millie refers to Kit as "Jezebel!" This was the title of Bette Davis' blockbuster hit five years before this movie (Jezebel).
Inside joke: The star of Broadway play written by Bette Davis' character is a difficult actress named "Julia Broadbank" - a pretty obvious allusion to Tallulah Bankhead, with whom Davis had a famously acrimonious relationship after Davis landed film versions of Dark Victory and The Little Foxes, both of which had been stage triumphs for Bankhead.
Many cast members in studio records & casting call lists did not appear or were not identifiable in the movie. These were (with their character names): Leona Maricle (Julia Broadbank), George Lessey (Dean), Joseph Crehan (Editor), Ann Codee (Madamoiselle), Creighton Hale (Stage manager), Pierre Watkin (Mr. Winter) and Frank Darien (Stage doorman). Other cast members such as Charles Sullivan, Jack Mower, Sam Harris, Herbert Rawlinson and all of the college girls were credited by barely seen.
The Broadway play opened on December 23, 1940 at the Morosco Theatre and closed 17 May 1941 after 170 performances. The opening night cast included Jane Cowl as Kit, Peggy Wood as Millie and Kent Smith as Rudd Kendall. Warner Bros. purchased the rights to the play for $75,000.
This film was the second collaboration of legendary arch-enemies Bette Davis and Miriam Hopkins, (Their previous collaboration had been The Old Maid.) The fact that in 1939, Bette Davis had an affair with Miriam Hopkins' then-husband, director Anatole Litvak, only added to their mutual hatred. To their credit, the two actresses had a sense of humor about the situation and allowed publicity photographs to be taken of them facing each other wearing boxing gloves, with director Vincent Sherman between them.
This is the film with the often shown, camp classic scene of Bette Davis calmly grabbing Miriam Hopkins by the shoulders, vigorously shaking her, throwing her down into a chair, and then calmly saying with a clipped, sarcastic edge: "Sorry". Bette Davis later admitted she immensely enjoyed playing that scene.