Joan Crawford went out of her way to help an aging Herbert Marshall with his lines. She also arranged to have his scenes filmed first so he could leave the set early in the day as he was an old friend and in ill health.
Joan Crawford said that she agreed to the film because she found the subject of the story "interesting".
From "The Washington Post", May 22, 1963: "So impressed were Senators Lister Hill and Thomas H. Kuchel with 'The Caretakers', a film on mental health, that they arranged a showing for senators and their staffs this afternoon in the New Senate Office building. The extra attraction: a post-screening reception in honor of stars Joan Crawford and Robert Stack, writer Henry F. Greenberg and producer Hall Bartlett."
This was the only film that featured Virginia Munshin as she died at the age of 30 on July 8, 1962 from a cerebral hemorrhage.
Producer Hall Bartlett's original choices for the roles of Dr. MacLeod (Stack) and Nurse Lucretia Terry (Crawford) were Kirk Douglas and Lana Turner