Art Carney won the National Society of Film Critics (U.S.) Best Actor Award for his role in this movie.
As the movie opens, the camera pans from an old typewriter to a framed photo of Martha Vickers. Vickers played Carmen Sternwood in The Big Sleep (1946), which was a Raymond Chandler story featuring his famous detective Philip Marlowe (Humphrey Bogart). This is one of many nods to film noir of the 1940s.
Robert Benton originally wanted producer Robert Altman to direct the film. Altman read the script and took on producer duties, but felt Benton should direct.
The only non-Best Picture nominee for the year to be nominated for Best Original Screenplay.
Of the five cinema movie collaborations of Lily Tomlin and producer Robert Altman, this film was the only one that Altman did not direct, as he was a producer only. Tomlin was directed by Altman in Nashville (1975), The Player (1992), Short Cuts (1993), and A Prairie Home Companion (2006), the latter being Altman's final film. Prior to this movie, Altman had just recently directed a detective film, The Long Goodbye (1973), based on the novel by Raymond Chandler.