The lines spoken by Walter Matthau as Einstein, "I'd rather be an optimist and a fool than a pessimist and right," "Time is an illusion," and "God does not play dice," are all actual Albert Einstein quotations.
Most of the film was filmed on the campus of Princeton University in Princeton NJ.
The close-ups of Ed manipulating the wooden puzzles feature the hands of enigmatologist John Chaneski.
When Einstein describes his work with Ed Walters as "attraction at a distance," this is a play on Albert Einstein's well-known work on what he termed "spooky action-at-a-distance."
The line "Dago the front?" that Frankie says is a custom car term. "Dago" is from dago dropped axles made in San Diego, California. It's where the front end of the car is lower than the rear.