Roy Scheider had been offered the lead in several of Cannon's films before but turned them down until they offered him the lead role in the film adaption of Elmore Leonard's "52 Pick-Up," which he accepted simply because he liked the book.
Adult film actress Seka mentions in her official biography that she auditioned for a small part as an extra in the porn party sequence, but ultimately passed on being in this film after director John Frankenheimer asked her out for a dinner date.
Adult film stars Randy West, Tom Byron, Amber Lynn, Sharon Mitchell, Ron Jeremy, Herschel Savage, Erica Boyer, Barbara Dare, Cara Lott and Jamie Gillis appear in the film during the party sequence.
Second of two movie adaptations of an Elmore Leonard novel. The book had been adapted as The Ambassador (1984) a couple years earlier. Both pictures were produced by Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus and The Cannon Group. Of the two, Leonard wrote the screenplay for only one of them - 52 Pick-Up (1986).
At the time, Cannon (a studio which was infamous for churning out low-budget schlock) did not intend to release this film in advance for a critics screening. Director John Frankenheimer convinced Menahem Golan to present this for a critic's screening. Golan was impressed with the critical results, complimenting Frankenheimer by saying this was the highest rated Cannon release at the time (excluding Runaway Train (1985)).