Concerned about the public's reaction, the disturbing subplot about Father Barrett's incestuous designs on his daughter was toned down by the studio. However, Charles Laughton famously remarked that they couldn't censor the "gleam" in his eye.
When producer Irving Thalberg cast his wife, Norma Shearer, in the role of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, William Randolph Hearst was enraged that his mistress, Marion Davies, was not given the part. So Hearst pulled Davies out of MGM and placed her with Warner Brothers for the remainder of her career, and for over a year the name "Norma Shearer" did not appear in any Hearst newspapers. Hearst later attempted to get Davies cast in the title role in Marie Antoinette (1938)...a part that also went to Shearer.
Remade literally word-for-word and scene-for-scene by the same director, Sidney Franklin and studio (MGM) as The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1957).
Charles Laughton, who played Elizabeth Barrett's (Norma Shearer) father, was only three years older than Shearer.
Charles Laughton was convinced he had given an Oscar-worthy performance and was bitterly disappointed not to be nominated.