The stream at which the Beast drinks was actually sewage runoff located just behind the studio. For the sake of the shot, Jean Marais actually took some of the filthy water into his mouth, though he spit it out as soon as the cameras stopped rolling.

While filming at a farm house near Tours, the crew discovered an old recording director Jean Cocteau had made of his poetry.

To get the effect of the candles lighting themselves as Belle's father passes them, Cocteau staged the action in reverse. Marcel Andre walked through the set backwards as the lit candles were blown out during one long take. If you look closely, you can see the flames in the fireplace moving downwards rather than upwards. Cocteau also ran the film backwards for the final shots in which the Prince rises to a standing position, and Belle and the Prince fly off to his new castle. For the latter, the actors jumped off a platform. When the shot was printed in reverse it looked like flying.

Cocteau wanted Belle to float through the hall when she first enters the castle, so he had her stand on a small wagon hidden by her long skirts.

For the effect when Belle's sisters look into her magic mirror to see their true selves, a monkey and an aged crone, Cocteau had the glass removed from the mirror and placed a real monkey and an older woman on the other side.

After seeing the film for the first time, Greta Garbo said to friends, "Give me back my Beast!"

By Frank Miller