Porn 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.
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.
Second of two movie versions of an Elmore Leonard novel. The book had been re-made under the title of The Ambassador (1984) only a couple of years earlier. Both pictures were produced by Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus and The Cannon Group. Of the two films, Leonard wrote the screenplay for only one of them, this being for 52 Pick-Up (1986).
The baseball game at Dodger Stadium in one scene was a real one, between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the New York Mets on Friday, May 16, 1986. The Dodgers won 4-3 in 11 innings.
This film adaptation of 'Elmore Leonard's novel of the same name was set in Los Angeles and had re-located its setting from the Detroit location of the source book.