Trivia for
Miller's Crossing (1990) More at IMDbPro »

• Writers Joel Coen and Ethan Coen suffered writer's block while writing Miller's Crossing (1990). They took a three week break and wrote Barton Fink (1991) a film about a writer with writer's block. The name of Tom Regan's residence is "The Barton Arms".
  
  
• The character of Leo was written for Trey Wilson, who played Nathan Arizona, Sr, in the Coens' previous film, Raising Arizona (1987). Wilson died shortly before production began, so Albert Finney took over the role.
  
  
• When Tom confronts Verna in the women's washroom, Albert Finney is in the background dressed in drag as the matron (wearing a black dress).
  
  
• John Turturro based his performance on the film's cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld.
  
  
• The Miller of the title comes from the Coen Brothers' frequent film editor, Michael R. Miller.
  
  
• When Tom pays a visit to Drop Johnson, a boxing poster is visible to the right of the front doorway with the name "Lars Thorwald" printed very clearly on it. Lars Thorwald is the name of Raymond Burr's character in Rear Window (1954)
  
  
• When Tom visits Clarence Johnson, he searches for his flat number on the mail boxes. The last one of these belongs to Louis Medrano. Louis Medrano worked in the art department on the movie.
  
  
• The character Eddie Dane was originally written for Peter Stormare and was to be named The Swede. Stormare had to decline as he was appearing as Hamlet in the Broadway production. The part was then re-written and re-cast, and became The Dane.
  
  
• Cameo: [Frances McDormand] the mayor's secretary
  
  
• Cameo: [Sam Raimi] Gunman with two pistols during the Sons of Erin Club gunfight.
  
  
• Based on the works of Dashiell Hammett, specifically "The Glass Key" and "Red Harvest" - the latter of which was previously adapted as Yojimbo (1961) and Per un pugno di dollari (1964).
  
  
• Cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld told the Coen brothers that the forest scenes should be shot during overcast days only. The brothers did not want to delay the filming based on the weather, but as luck would have it, on all but one of the scheduled days, it was overcast anyway. Sonnenfeld further muted the colors by using Fuji film instead of Kodak for the forest scenes. In one scene, when the Dane, Tom, Frankie and Tic-Tac are in the woods at Miller's Crossing, some sunlight can be seen faintly and out of focus in the background.
  
  
• Body count: 14
  
  
• Cameo: [Albert Finney] In the ladies restroom scene, when Tom enters, Albert Finney can be seen as a (rather big) maid dressed in black and white on Tom's left side.
  
  
• In one of the newspapers an article reads 'Seven Dead in Hotel Fire.' This is a reference to Barton Fink, the Coens' next film.
  
  
• The line "Jesus, Tom" is said 7 times: 3 times by Leo, and once each by Frankie, Mink, Chief O'Doole and Mayor Levander.
  
  
• The fight poster in Drop Johnson's apartment (mentioned above) has as the undercard a fight featuring "Bunky Knudsen." Semon "Bunkie" Knudsen was the President of Ford Motor Company in 1969 and 1969, and before that a top executive at General Motors.
  
  

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