After the success of The Letter (1940). actor James Stephenson was promoted to star for this picture. Actor Irving Rapper was promoted to director on the project. According to Bette Davis in the biography 'Mother Goddam,' "I disguised myself as a nurse and appeared on the set as an extra. Rapper didn't recognize me for the first few takes. I had a ball. Imagine daring to do this today!"
James Stephenson, as the brilliant but stubborn researcher, had appeared with Bette Davis three times prior to this: La Vie privée d'Élisabeth d'Angleterre (1939), The Old Maid (1939) and as her humiliated friend and attorney in The Letter (1940), which earned him an Oscar® nomination. Shining Victory (1941) was one of his few lead roles; there likely would have been more for this British stage-trained actor, but he died suddenly of a heart attack in July 1941, less than two months after the release of this film.
The working title of the film was "Winged Victory," but this was changed when it was learned that Moss Hart was writing a morale-boosting World War II play with that title. Hart's play was later filmed as Winged Victory (1944).
The picture marked Irving Rapper's feature-film directorial debut after working as a dialogue director.
In 1941, Dublin-born Geraldine Fitzgerald was given the opportunity to break through to starring roles after distinguishing herself in such high-profile supporting parts as Isabella, Heathcliff's unhappy wife in Wuthering Heights (1939), and best friend to Bette Davis in Victoire sur la nuit (1939). The two became lifelong friends on that picture but only worked together one other time after Shining Victory (1941) in Regarder sur le Rhin (1943). Despite well-received performances in Wilson (1944) and Three Strangers (1946), Fitzgerald's Hollywood career was virtually over by the end of the 1940s, largely because, taking her cue from friend Davis's struggle with Warners in the 1930s, she refused many parts she thought were unworthy. She kept working, however, on TV and stage, and later in life returned to films in a number of memorable character roles.