The film was produced by Walt Disney Productions, known for its family fare. Yet, since it contains adult themes that some felt were inappropriate for the studio's image, the Disney name appears nowhere on the film. Disney ultimately created the Touchstone Pictures brand in order to release more adult fare.
The character name of writer Mickey Raymond (Margot Kidder) was an amalgam of both of the first names of writers Mickey Spillane and Raymond Chandler.
This Walt Disney studios picture, a spoof of detective, film noir and mystery movies, followed on the heels of Disney's Condorman (1981), a spoof of super-hero movies, released a couple of years earlier.