It was adapted from his own play L'Aigle à deux têtes which was first staged in Paris in October 1946, retaining the principal actors Edwige Feuillère and Jean Marais from the original theatre production.

Cocteau's play was produced in Paris in 1946 and 1947, and his decision to make a prompt adaptation for the cinema allowed him to retain the principal actors who had enjoyed personal successes with their roles, especially Edwige Feuillère and Jean Marais.

Cocteau declared his intention of following the three-act structure of the play closely, citing his admiration of the methods of Ernst Lubitsch,[3] but he opened out some of the scenes into a wider variety of locations.

Christian Bérard supervised the art direction, and the sets and costumes (executed by Georges Wakhévitch and Marcel Escoffier respectively) evoked a royal palace in an imaginary kingdom of 19th century middle-Europe.

[citation needed] Cocteau's play was adapted again by director Michelangelo Antonioni for his 1980 television production The Mystery of Oberwald.