Martin Short sports red hair in this film rather than his natural dark brown hair he usually has. This stems from his work on "Clifford" for Orion Pictures which had been filmed around this time. Rather than change it from the dutch-boy hair cut featured in that film, he wore it in a perm instead to give it a wacky, unlucky look.
Highsmith (Sam Wanamaker) has insured a world famous pianist hands for eight million dollars. In Danny Glover's first scene, he is reading a newspaper with the headline of "Renowned Pianist's Hands Broken in Freak Accident."
Martin Short stated in an interview with Larry King that the idea for the look of his Jiminy Glick character stemmed from the fat suit he wore in this film during the bee sting reaction scene.
Second time Martin Short has appeared in an American remake of a French film. He previously appeared in Three Fugitives (1989). Both were remakes of buddy comedies starring Pierre Richard and Gérard Depardieu. Both times, Short played Richard's role. Both films were also written by Francis Veber, who directed The Three Fugitives (1989)
This was Director Nadia Tass' first and only film directed for an American studio.