Screenwriter Wilson Mizner brought a copy of the Maugham novel to Davis, who was in the midst of filming her "20,000 Years in Sing Sing". After reading it and learning RKO held the screen rights, she implored Jack L. Warner to lend her to the rival studio. "At the time, however", Davis later recalled, "Warner Brothers had other plans for me. They thought they needed me desperately for such immortal classics as "Fashions of 1934", "The Big Shakedown", and "Jimmy the Gent"." She reluctantly filmed those as well as "Fog Over Frisco" but continued to harass Warner, who continued to object because he felt the role of Mildred would destroy her glamorous image, the same reason Katharine Hepburn, Irene Dunne, and Ann Harding reportedly declined the role. "An evil heroine such as Mildred was really unheard of in that day. J. L. could not possibly understand any actress who would want to play such a part", Davis said. Warner finally relented only because Mervyn LeRoy wanted RKO contract player Irene Dunne for "Sweet Adeline", the screen adaptation of the Jerome Kern-Oscar Hammerstein II musical, and the two studios agreed to trade actresses.