Shared with you
During "Louisiana Hayride", Nanette Fabray gashed her leg when she broke through the top of a prop crate she was standing on. She said that during the later filming of "Triplets", standing on her knees was so painful that she had to take large numbers of pain-killers.
In the DVD bonus features, Nanette Fabray stated that Oscar Levant was difficult to work with. Whenever something would go wrong or he would make a mistake, he would blame whoever was around. This included stage hands, other actors, lighting technicians, or whoever was handy. She said that, since she was usually closest, she caught the brunt of it. Following a botched take, he again blamed her for something. She lost her temper and told him off using unladylike language. Everyone on the set applauded. After that, he was much easier to work with.
The movie reflects one real-life situation. Fred Astaire was conscious of the height differential with his dance partners, and none of the others was as tall as Cyd Charisse. In "The Girl Hunt Ballet," Charisse is wearing medium height heels, and Fred is wearing a hat which offsets and hides the height difference.
Betty Comden and Adolph Green made the characters played by Nanette Fabray and Oscar Levant a married couple because they felt that the audiences would not accept a male/female writing team who weren't married to each other, even though the characters were based on Comden and Green, who were not married to each other.
After Les and Lilly have their fight in the alley, Les heads to the bar across the street. In the background, there is a poster for the musical "Every Night At Seven". This is the title of the musical that Fred Astaire and Jane Powell starred in in the movie Royal Wedding (1951).
The full-skirted white dress worn by Cyd Charisse in "Dancing In The Dark" was actually copied from a dress worn by the film's costume designer Mary Ann Nyberg. Director Vincente Minnelli tried to buy it off the rack (It originally cost about $25.), but no store carried exactly that type of frock. It was finally created from scratch for about $1,000.