The film is an homage to the suspense movies of Alfred Hitchcock. The picture was released seven months after Mel Brooks' Hitchcock spoof High Anxiety (1977). Writer and director Colin Higgins previously had written Silver Streak (1976), which was also a Hitchcock-like spoof thriller, and starred Brooks collaborators Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor.
Farrah Fawcett was in line for the role of Gloria. However, the studio opted for Goldie Hawn when Spelling-Goldberg Productions, the producers of Charlie's Angels (1976), warned all the studios that "they would be sued for damages if they employed me," Fawcett told The Associated Press in 1979. She was still under contract with Spelling-Goldberg when she left the show. Farrah can be seen in the background at the party scene where Goldie's character is introduced.
The picture was a box-office hit, being in the U.S.'s top ten grossing films of its year. It was the first hit movie since Shampoo (1975) for Goldie Hawn. The success of the movie enabled Hawn to get Private Benjamin (1980) made.
American film debut of Dudley Moore. The success of this movie kick-started Moore's American movie career, with successes such as 10 (1979) and Arthur (1981) following. However, his first film seen in America was Bedazzled (1967) directed and produced by Stanley Donen.
The movie's theme song "Ready to Take a Chance Again" was a hit and was on the American charts for sixteen weeks and even garnered a Best Song Academy Award nomination. It was sung by Barry Manilow, who also conceived and oversaw its production alongside of Ron Dante. Manilow had another song on the film's soundtrack as well, "Copacabana", which was from Manilow's fourth studio album "Even Now".