Editing Mr. Skeffington (section)

==Production==
Julius Epstein said "They had four or five scripts that had never been made, including one by [[Edmund Goulding]] and one by [[John Huston]]. We took a look at ''Mr. Skeffington'' and said, ‘First of all, it shouldn’t be English; it should be made with an American family. Secondly, the trick of the book was that its title was Mr. Skeffington, and he never appeared in the book. He should be a character in the movie.’ And it was made."<ref>{{cite book|first=Patrick|last=McGillian|chapter=Julius J Epstein: A king of comedy|title=Backstory: interviews with screenwriters of Hollywood's golden age|publisher= Berkeley|year= 1986|pages =181}}</ref>

[[Paul Henreid]] says he was offered the male lead but turned it down as he felt he would not be convincing as a man who looked on passively while his wife had affairs.<ref>{{cite book| title=Ladies man: an autobiography| url=https://archive.org/details/ladiesmanautobio00henr/page/n1/mode/2up| last1=Henreid| first1=Paul| last2=Fast| first2=Julius| year=1984| publisher=St. Martin's Press| location=New York| page=[https://archive.org/details/ladiesmanautobio00henr/page/165/mode/2up?q=skeffington 166]| isbn=978-0-3124-6384-7}}</ref>

According to the 1989 book ''Bette & Joan: The Divine Feud'' by Shaun Considine, Davis was going through intense personal torments at this time, which was reflected in her treatment of co-stars on this film, and several others at the time, culminating in a vicious personal attack. Apparently, while Davis was away from her dressing room, the eyewash she always used after filming the day's scenes had been poisoned, causing Davis to scream out in pain. Director Vincent Sherman, with whom Davis had once been romantically involved, admitted to the detectives investigating the incident, "If you asked everyone on the set who would have committed such a thing, everyone would raise their hand!" Even Bette Davis is quoted as saying "Only a mother could have loved me at this point in my life."<ref>{{cite book| title=Bette & Joan: The Divine Feud| url=https://archive.org/details/bettejoandivinef00cons| last=Considine| first=Shaun| publisher=Dell| location=New York| date=December 1990| page=[https://archive.org/details/bettejoan00shau/page/196/mode/2up?q=eyewash 197]| access-date=2023-04-12| isbn=978-0-4402-0776-4}}</ref>