"The Screen Guild Theater" broadcast a 30 minute radio adaptation of the movie on August 6, 1945 with Bette Davis, 'Charles' Dingle' and Teresa Wright reprising their film roles.
Teresa Wright's debut and her first Oscar nomination.
Bette Davis and William Wyler fought a great deal during filming. Disagreements ranged from Davis's interpretation of the character (Wyler thought she should be more sympathetic) to the appearance of the house (Davis thought it was far too opulent for a family struggling financially), to her appearance (Wyler thought her white makeup made her look like a Kabuki performer.) Davis eventually walked out of production, but returned when she heard rumors she was going to be replaced by Katharine Hepburn or Miriam Hopkins.
Herbert Marshall had lost a leg in WWI. The scene where Horace crawls up the stairs is done by a stunt man. Marshall takes the role until he walks towards the stairs, but is hidden by a curtain for a moment. That was where the switch was made.
According to 'Reel Facts: The Movie Book of Records', Goldwyn had to pay Warners $385,000 for Davis' services.
According to Samuel Goldwyn Jr., the reason Jack L. Warner loaned Bette Davis to RKO for this movie was to settle a $300,000 gambling debt Warner had with Samuel Goldwyn. It has been said that all of the studio moguls (Jack L. Warner, Samuel Goldwyn, Harry Cohn, Louis B. Mayer, Darryl F. Zanuck and Carl Laemmle) would gather and play cards after work, after having "stabbed each other in the back" during the day.
David Hewitt, the character played by Richard Carlson, does not appear at all in the play. He was added to provide a love interest for Alexandra Giddens (Teresa Wright's character), and to add another sympathetic male character to the film besides Horace Giddens (played by Herbert Marshall).
Four members of the original Broadway cast repeated their roles in the film: Dan Duryea, Charles Dingle, Carl Benton Reid, and Patricia Collinge.
In an effort to recoup its losses after the initial box office failure of Citizen Kane, RKO distributed that film on a double bill with "The Little Foxes" in January 1942.
The original stage production of "The Little Foxes" opened at the National Theater in New York on February 15, 1939 and ran for 410 performances. It starred Tallulah Bankhead as Regina Giddens and featured Dan Duryea as Leo Hubbard. As of this date (Aug. 2008), it has had three revivals, starring Anne Bancroft in 1967, Elizabeth Taylor in 1981, and Stockard Channing in 1997.
Warner Brothers loaned Bette Davis to RKO for the role of Regina Giddens.