When asked which one of her movies stands out to her, Dame Angela Lansbury cited this movie, saying, "That's one I felt we did a good job with, one that didn't get the attention it deserved."
The original Broadway production of "The Dark at the Top of the Stairs" by William Inge opened at the Music Box Theater in New York City on December 5, 1957, and ran for four hundred sixty-eight performances. It was nominated for five Tony Awards: Best Play, Best Featured Actor (Pat Hingle), Best Featured Actress (Eileen Heckart), Best Scenic Design, and Best Director (Elia Kazan). Frank Overton re-created his stage role as Morris Lacey in this movie. On stage, Teresa Wright originated the role of Cora Flood.
Kazan later directed Inge's original, Oscar winning screenplay, La Fièvre dans le sang (1961).
Kazan later directed Inge's original, Oscar winning screenplay, La Fièvre dans le sang (1961).
Set in the 1920s, several stars of the day are mentioned: Norma Talmadge, Marion Davies, Rudolph Valentino, John Gilbert, William S. Hart, Pearl White, Marilyn Miller, and Mabel Normand.
William Inge began as a drama critic at the St. Louis Star-Times in 1943, where he met Tennessee Williams. With Williams' encouragement, he wrote his first play, "Farther Off from Heaven (1947)," which was staged at Margo Jones's Theatre '47 in Dallas, Texas. Later Inge revised it and gave it the title, The Dark at the Top of the Stairs (1960).
The two story William Inge family home is located at 514 N. 4th St. in Independence, Kansas. Now owned by the William Inge Festival Foundation, it is used by visiting artists working with the Inge Center for the Arts and Independence Community College. But in Inge's childhood his mother maintained it as a boarding house for local high school teachers, a reflection of the autobiographical nature of The Dark at the Top of the Stairs (1960).