Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer realized the value of their long-time contract player Deborah Kerr following Black Narcissus, and cast her in The Hucksters (1947) opposite Clark Gable. Recalling the strong supporting role that Kathleen Byron played in Black Narcissus, Kerr wrote to director Michael Powell about her new film, saying "There is a new young actress in this picture, who is almost as big a menace to me as Sister Ruth, but not quite. Her name is Ava Gardner."

Powell and Pressburger's Black Narcissus was not the first adaptation of Rumer Godden's novel to another medium. In 1942 Godden herself wrote a stage version, which was produced as a play by Lee Strasberg.

Scenes from Black Narcissus were excerpted in Su Friedrich's avant-garde short Damned If You Don't (1987). In a story about the attraction between a nun and a female artist, Friedrich incorporates images from the Powell-Pressburger film. The footage was shot off a television set, keeping the "roll bars" that occur when a video image is captured on film.

Clips of Black Narcissus were used in the documentary A Bit of Scarlet (1997), directed by Andrea Weiss. This film, with voiceover work by Ian McKellen, highlights intentional and unintentional gay and lesbian subtexts in mainstream films. The scene in which Sister Clodagh discovers Sister Ruth wearing a red dress and applying lipstick in Black Narcissus is re-edited to play instead as a seduction scene.

American director Martin Scorsese has championed Black Narcissus for many years, saying that watching it is "like being bathed in color." He has also been quoted as saying it is "halfway between Disney and a horror film" and "one of the first truly erotic films". In 1988 Scorsese recorded a commentary track for the film alongside Michael Powell.

by John M. Miller