The M. Riklis who produced the film was Pia Zadora's husband at the time. He also owned a controlling interest in the Riviera hotel, where the film was shot, and he had a small cameo at the very beginning of the film.
In a 1984 newspaper interview with Pia Zadora by Frank Sanello, it's mentioned that neither this film nor Rock Aliens (1984) had yet been released theatrically. Pia first swooned over 'Rock Aliens' and then quipped, "I threatened to commit suicide if 'Fake Out' was released."
The movie is known in English language markets and territories under two different titles: ''Fake-Out'' and ''Nevada Heat''. Sometimes the first title is spelled ''Fakeout'' or ''Fake Out''. The film has been re-titled on DVD as 'Nevada Heat' though the credits for it are spelled as one word 'NEVADAHEAT'. As such, the wording of both of the film's English language titles is confusing as to what is the actual spelling of each title.
One of two movies starring Pia Zadora and directed by Matt Cimber. The first was 'Butterfly' (1981) and the second was Banco à Las Vegas (1982). Quite a number of crew worked on both films.
Meshulam Riklis allegedly used some of his fortune to build an entertainment career for his then wife Pia Zadora, bankrolling some of her early films such as 'Butterfly' (1981), 'Fake-Out' (1982) and 'The Lonely Lady' (1983), as well as some of her music albums. The allegedly most notorious use of his money was to allegedly 'buy' the Golden Globe Award for Best New Star for Pia, even though the film it was for, 'Butterfly' (1981), was not well received critically, to say the least. After this happened, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, who run the Globes, decided to eliminate the New Star category all together.