Vincent Price was originally set to play Lord Harry Almsbury in the Peggy Cummins version but was replaced by Richard Greene when the film was recast with Linda Darnell.

The Catholic Legion of Decency condemned the film for its "glamorization of immorality and licentiousness", and they demanded that the studio (20th Century-Fox) make changes so they could remove the film from the condemned list. The studio defiantly refused to initially, but when the actual boycotts began to occur, the studio caved in. During a period of about two months, 20th Century-Fox and representatives of the Legion of Decency discussed how the film could be changed so as to meet Catholic approval. Among the new scenes added was a narrated prologue over the credits that said that the main character would be punished for sins, a new ending in which Amber watches Lord Carlton leave for Virginia and ends up accepting a supper invitation from the King's equerry, plus the deletion of many scenes that suggested that Amber had many lovers and the addition of new scenes to condemn her immorality. After these changes were made, the Legion of Decency took the film off of the "condemned" list and moved it to the "Class B-Objectionable in Part" listing, but the film's bookings had been severely cut due to the earlier condemnation. 20th Century-Fox president Spyros P. Skouras later apologized to the Legion, not for offending them, but for refusing to conform to them.

Otto Preminger replaced John M. Stahl as director.

Peggy Cummins was originally cast as Amber, but proved unsuitable and was replaced by Linda Darnell.