Ricky Jay was a sleight-of-hand artist and an acknowledged authority on the art of the con. In an NPR interview, Jay related that when David Mamet needed a short-change scam to be explained in the movie, he asked Jay for details of an authentic short-change hustle. However, Jay did not want to betray the confidence of the hustlers he knew who still used various short-change cons for their "livelihood". The envelope switch seen in the final film is an original switch invented by Jay specially for the film. Later, it was reported that an amateur thief had been caught attempting to use the switch as he had learned it from the film.
This was originally intended to be a larger-budget film with many "name" actors, but David Mamet chose to direct on his own with his wife, Lindsay Crouse and friends, such as Joe Mantegna, in the cast.
According to writer-director David Mamet, despite the excellent reviews the film received in a limited showing in four theaters, Orion decided against spending the money for the prints and publicity that would have accompanied a general release and sent the film almost directly to TV and video.
The scene outside with Margaret and Dr. Littauer was filmed in front of the main entrance to the iconic art deco PacMed Building on Seattle's Beacon Hill. At the time the PacMed Building was a medical facility, but would later become the headquarters (until 2010) of Amazon.
Parrain d'un jour (1988) was writer-director David Mamet's follow-up movie to this movie, his directorial debut. Both pictures featured many of the same cast and crew totaling to around about fifty common personnel between the two productions. This included such actors as Joe Mantegna, William H. Macy, J.T. Walsh, Ricky Jay, Jack Wallace, Mike Nussbaum and Steven Goldstein.