Joan Blondell was originally set to play the title role but because of an accident she was replaced with Joan Crawford.
Joan Crawford had script and cast approval.
Joan Crawford required the script be completely rewritten to her specifications before she agreed to sign on to the film.
Mitchell Cox (Dr. Anderson) was not an actor but was actually the vice-president of the Pepsi-Cola Company. Joan Crawford had made this arrangement without consulting with producer William Castle.
Film debut of Lee Majors who got the small role of playing Lucy Harbin's (Joan Crawford's) husband in the flashback scene after his good friend Rock Hudson asked William Castle to please find a part for the then 23-year-old actor.
The children's rhyme chanted in the movie, "Lucy Harbin took an ax, gave her husband 40 whacks. When she saw what she had done, gave his girlfriend 41," is a slight alteration of the rhyme originally popularized about Lizzie Andrew Borden: "Lizzie Borden took an ax, gave her mother 40 whacks. When she saw what she had done, gave her father 41."
The sculpture of Joan Crawford used in the film was indeed real, created by Yucca Salamunich, a Yugoslav artist. The sculpture was originally presented to Crawford in 1941 on the set of A Woman's Face.
The sound effect for the heads being chopped off was the prop man wielding an ax and cutting a watermelon in half.
The storyline for the movie was originally to end at the scene in the Fields' home after Lucy Harbin has exposed her daughter Carol who is seen ranting and raving about how she had planned everything, but Joan Crawford used her considerable clout to push for and receive an additional scene afterward which showcased her explaining everything to her brother, thus having the movie end with the audience's last impression being of Joan Crawford.
This film is listed among The 100 Most Enjoyably Bad Movies Ever Made in Golden Raspberry Award founder John Wilson's book THE OFFICIAL RAZZIE® MOVIE GUIDE.
Joan Crawford:
[Pepsi]
In the kitchen scenes at the beginning of the movie, a carton of Pepsi-Cola is prominently displayed on the counter. Joan Crawford was the widow of Alfred Steele, who had been CEO of the Pepsi-Cola Company, and at the time of filming Crawford, still on the Board of Directors, demanded that product placement shots be included in all her films of this era. See also Berserk.