This was Robert Wise's second film as a director. (He co-directed his first, The Curse of the Cat People (1944) and also previously shot additional scenes for The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) ). He shot the entire film in 22 days for $200,000. This was a record low budget for an American sound and period feature.
In the original story by Guy de Maupassant, Elizabeth is a prostitute, not a laundress, and the dinner with Lt. von Eyrick (Fifi) is another type of encounter altogether. These changes had to be made because of the Hays Code in force at the time.
Because of the extremely low budget for this film, sets from The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939) were used. Other sets were made from painted cardboard.
Producer Val Lewton wanted to break out of "B" films and horror pictures and thus talked RKO into doing a period film based on two short stories by French author Guy de Maupassant - "Mademoiselle Fifi" (1882) and "Boule de Suif" (1880). However, this film became Lewton's biggest box office flop to date.
Photo 21 is a publicity still of Simone Simon with RKO Executive President in charge of production Charles W. Koerner greeting Ohio Governor John W. Brinker and Mrs. John W.Brinker. Why the Ohio governor and his wife were visiting a Hollywood studio in the midst of wartime travel restrictions is not known.
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