For the scene in which Gloria Swanson is covered in bees, the bees were taken to the location in dry ice, which calmed them down. While in this almost comatose state, and with the lights turned out, they were placed on Miss Swanson's shoulders, arms and brimmed hat. Then the hot lights were switched on, and as the bees warmed up, they began to crawl and move around. Once the filming of the scene was completed, Swanson was enthusiastically applauded by the film crew.
Bette Davis was originally slated to star in the film, but at the insistence of her doctor (who feared that she would go into anaphylactic shock if she was stung by even one bee, much less several of them), she turned the role down, and it went to the director's second choice, Gloria Swanson.
According to an interview Kate Jackson did with "The Glass Eye" in 2004, the film was shot in what is now Francis Ford Coppola's house.
Because the film was shot in winter while there were no drone bees without stingers available, the bees seen in it went through a process in which their stingers were removed - a process which took six people one week to do.
Close to 700,000 bees were used in the film.