As the film's executive producer, Joan Crawford was heavily involved in all aspects of the production. She personally hired Lenore J. Coffee as the film's screenwriter, David Miller as director and suggested Elmer Bernstein as composer. She insisted on Charles Lang being hired as the film's cinematographer and personally cast Jack Palance and Gloria Grahame as her co-stars.
Gloria Grahame reputedly had an affair with Jack Palance during the filming of "Sudden Fear (1952)".
This film was Jack Palance's "big break," garnering him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination, and helping him get cast in the following year's Shane (1953), for which he was also an Oscar nominee.
Crawford received her third and last Academy Award nomination for this film, and it was the only year she competed against Bette Davis for the Oscar. Both lost to Shirley Booth for Come Back, Little Sheba (1952).
The dictation machines in Myra's office are a pair of SoundScribers. The machines were introduced in 1945 by The SoundScriber Corporation of New Haven, Connecticut. They normally recorded on six inch soft vinyl discs with a recording time of 15 minutes. The machines were popular for twenty years until compact cassette tapes came into use in the mid-1960s.