Never Fear (1950) was the first directorial credit for actress and pioneering female director Ida Lupino, although an item in The New York Times reported that Frank Cavett was originally intended to direct.
Ida Lupino had contracted polio in 1934 and suffered the same fevers and pains as does the Carol Williams character, and she also faced the same dark thoughts and fear that she would not walk again. Lupino's major symptoms persisted for only a brief period of time, leaving her with minor problems in her leg and hand. She remained a supporter of causes to fight the disease, and Never Fear (1950) was released in 1949, the year with America's highest-ever recorded total of polio cases.
Screenwriters Ida Lupino and Collier Young were married to each other when they collaborated on this film.
The year this film was released, 1950, there were 33,300 reported cases of polio in the United States. This was the main reason this film flopped at the box office.
Much of this film was shot at the Kabat-Kaiser Rehabilitation Center in Santa Monica, California. Many of the extras were patients at the facility, and a scene depicting a wheelchair square dance featured a group of real wheelchair dancers from Kabat-Kaiser. The film highlights the aggressive therapies provided at the institution which were in contrast to more conservative and passive treatments of the past.