Dirty Tricks

The Harvard University campus seen in the film was not actually Harvard but McGill University in the Canadian province of Quebec.

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According to an article published in the September 12, 1979 issue of the show business trade paper Variety, road signage in Montreal, Quebec, Canada caused an unexpected problem for the production. Until 1977 the city's street signs were in English only, but new laws that took effect that year meant they also had to be in French. The problem was that filming in Montreal was also doubling for Boston in the United States, where street signs were in English only.

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The film's MacGuffin was a rare, valuable 18th-century document that could reveal America's first president, George Washington, to be a traitor.

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TV Guide described this motion picture as a "Canadian tax-shelter production."

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According to an article published in the August 13, 1979 issue of the show business trade paper Variety, the film's screenplay was written by two husband-and-wife teams, Thomas Gifford & Camille Gifford and Eleanor Elias Norton & William Norton, Sr.

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The actors playing Ozzie and Thorn, respectively, are the twin brothers Martin McNamara and Michael McNamara. The film was the first acting role for both twins.

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The discipline and university in which Professor Colin Chandler (Elliott Gould) teaches were History and Harvard.

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According to an article published in the August 15, 1979 issue of the show business trade paper Variety, this was actor Rich Little's first leading role in a feature film.

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The surname of the character Colin Chandler (Elliott Gould) was taken from the name of the crime-mystery writer Raymond Chandler.

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The film's main movie poster carried the following tagline: "Everyone here is crazy… everyone else is going mad… in the comedy that comes out in a complete frenzy! DIRTY TRICKS… Just good, clean, dirty fun."

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According to director Alvin Rakoff, principal photography on this film was a difficult shoot because the Canadian film industry had a limited crew infrastructure at the time.

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The actors playing Ozzie and Thorn, respectively, are the twin brothers Martin McNamara and Michael McNamara. The picture has a story involving the same twin plot. The film was the first acting role for both twins.

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This was actress Kate Trotter's first feature film.

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The principal photography period for this picture was planned as a nine-week shoot.

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The film's end title sequence states: "The producers of this film wish to thank the following for the use of the graphics in the opening sequence: Abbot Hall; Marble Head, Mass.; Yale University Art Gallery; Metropolitan Museum of Art."

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According to the American Film Institute's AFI Catalog, "various contemporary sources refer to the film by the working title… 'The Glendower Inheritance'."

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With a budget of $5.2 million, the film was, according to the show business trade paper The Hollywood Reporter, the highest-budgeted film shot in Montreal, Canada, at that time.

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According to an article published in the August 15, 1979 issue of the show business trade paper Variety, this was actress Kate Jackson's first leading role in a feature film.

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The surname of the character Colin Chandler (Elliott Gould) was taken from the crime-mystery writer Raymond Chandler. Gould had previously played Philip Marlowe in director Robert Altman's adaptation of Raymond Chandler's 'The Long Goodbye' (1973).

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Months before its (short-lived) national release, a one-night preview was held in Detroit on Friday, November 14, 1980.

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The television channel where TV reporter Polly Bishop (Kate Jackson) worked was called "WKS Channel 11".

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Director Alvin Rakoff once said what drew him to the film: "Salary. My children like to eat. Of course I could give you a lot of nonsense about how meaningful a part of my life this was. But I'm not that kind of man. Or that kind of director."

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