Production on the film was shut down for one day after Elliott Gould and Menahem Golan got into a row over the scene where Gould 's character Alby Sherman confesses to Elizabeth Anderson (Margaux Hemingway) that he loves her. The end result had Gould allegedly calling Golan "a cocksucker" during the argument and storming off the set to the shock of cast and crew. Gould about two days later personally apologized to Golan and filming then resumed.
The picture was scheduled for a six week shoot with a budget of US $4 million according to the book 'Hollywood a Go-Go: An Account of the Cannon Phenomenon' (1987) by Andrew Yule. It adds that producer-director Menahem Golan completed the film in five weeks and at a cost of about US $3.5 million thereby the picture wrapping one week early and with a saving of about US $500,000 (or half a million dollars) under budget .
The film's original title / working title was "My Beautiful Shiksa".
Elliott Gould has said that he did not like the animated movie poster artwork with a naked lady stretched-out atop the New York City harbor.
Uncredited debut theatrical feature film of actress Sarah Michelle Gellar who played the daughter of Phil (Burt Young).