Then Disney head Jeffrey Katzenberg opted to produce this gangster epic instead of Warren Beatty's Bugsy (1991) as he figured Beatty's film was too expensive at $40 million. This movie ultimately came in at $50 million, and grossed a mere $15 million during its American release.

At fifty-four, Dustin Hoffman was more than twenty years older than the real Dutch Schultz was when he was killed.

Reports constantly streamed from the set, consisting of protracted arguments between Dustin Hoffman and director Robert Benton. It got to the point where Disney head Jeffrey Katzenberg himself had to come on-set and intervene.

To date, this movie remains one of the most accurate re-creations of the Chophouse Massacre that took the lives of Arthur "Dutch Schultz" Flegenheimer and several of his men.

E.L. Doctorow distanced himself from the film, for the extensive deviations from the book.