This is a remake of the 1930s film L'obsession de Madame Craig (1936), directed by Dorothy Arzner and starring Rosalind Russell, itself a remake of Dominatrice (1928), directed by William C. de Mille and starring Irene Rich.
The screenplay source for this film is the original Broadway play "Craig's Wife" by George Kelly, which opened on October 12, 1925 at the Morosco Theater, ran for 360 performances, and won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1926.
Harriet's speech at the climax, "I wouldn't trust [...] me about love" was entirely written by Joan Crawford, incorporating elements of her own past.
In this film, Harriet recounts to several people her negative experiences of working in a laundry in her youth. In her own life, Joan Crawford also had to work in a laundry because of her family's poverty, and she hated it. Crawford's adopted daughter Christina theorized that this hatred led to the alleged "wire hangers" incident she described in "Mommie Dearest."