John Huston was originally set to direct this film, but left the production some 17 days before shooting was due to begin. Bryan Forbes agreed to take over in order to have the experience of directing Katharine Hepburn, who became a close friend; he also insisted on hiring Ray Simm, a regular collaborator, as the set designer, and several last-minute alterations were made to already-built settings. Forbes also gave Michael J. Lewis his first job as a film composer.
The original Broadway production of "The Madwoman of Chaillot" by Jean Giraudoux opened at the Belasco Theater in New York on December 27, 1948 and ran for 368 performances.
The only one of Katharine Hepburn's four films during the 1960s (including Long Day's Journey Into Night (1962), Rat mal, wer zum Essen kommt (1967) and Der Löwe im Winter (1968)) for which she wasn't Oscar-nominated.
The Place de Chaillot set, still standing at Studio la Victorine, was reused by François Truffaut as the set on which "Meet Pamela", the film-within-a-film in Die amerikanische Nacht (1973), was being shot.