Ten days before filming began, Crawford, who had been off-screen for two years, signed on to play Amanda Farrow, the female editor who makes Lange's life miserable until she leaves for her own ill-fated stab at domestic bliss. It was the star's first supporting role and marked a major step down from her days as a leading player at MGM, Warner Bros., Columbia and other studios. Though she may have felt she owed Wald the favor, since he produced her Oscar®-winning comeback feature, Mildred Pierce (1945), she also had been left in debt by the death of her fourth husband, Pepsi-Cola executive Alfred Steele. She told gossip columnist Louella Parsons just that in an interview that ran nationally. But when executives at Pepsi suggested the statement made them look bad, she told the press that she wasn't as bad off as Parsons had said. The columnist never forgave her.

Crawford's only consolation on set was Baker, who went out of her way to be kind to the older star and provide support that seemed to be lacking from her director. Just to make things worse, the studio scrapped plans to have her "host" the film's theatrical trailer when she insisted on having a bottle of Pepsi featured on screen. Crawford would not return to the screen again until 1962, when she and longtime rival Bette Davis launched the "fading stars as gothic monsters" genre with What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?. When that relaunched her career, Crawford repaid Baker for her kindness by insisting the actress originally cast as her daughter in Strait-Jacket (1964) be fired and Baker hired in her place. Eventually, Crawford got some kind of posthumous revenge when the film was released on video and DVD. The cover for the film's home viewing release features her more prominently than any of the film's real stars.