Because of this film, Theresa Saldana gained a stalker. The Stalker stabbed her ten times in the torso. Theresa survived and went on to play herself in a television movie based on the events.
Tony DiBenedetto (famous for being the Chicken Pimp in The Exterminator (1980)) has a non-speaking uncredited cameo at the beginning of this movie exchanging mean glances with Jan-Michael Vincent. Meaning Tony was the reason Vincent was kicked off the ship they were both on. Thus setting this movie in motion.
Danny Aiello, Frank Pesce, Don Blakely and Tony Sirico, whose characters are friends in this film, will be together again in 29th Street (1991)
Jan-Michael Vincent's character tells the young boy (and his friend) about a baby alligator that a kid owned and the angry parent flushed it down the toilet. The alligator grew really large, lived in the sewer, people were killed, and men were sent after it in the sewer. This happens to be the exact plot of the movie Alligator that came out the same year. So most likely, it was a coincidence.
One of the names on the blackboard in the bingo hall is J. Flynn, or John Flynn, the film's director.