Nicolas Cage's screen test didn't impress the studio, and they wanted to get someone else to play Ronny. But Cher insisted that Cage was the one to play that role, and threatened to quit unless he was hired. After a few days, the studio relented.

Director Norman Jewison was fined by the actors' union for not allowing his actors to go to lunch until they perfected the moods of their characters for the climax scene in the kitchen.

The opening title sequence was originally played on the score from "La boh?me" opera but was changed to the Dean Martin track "That's Amore" because the preview drew negative test audience reaction. Many shifted uncomfortably on their seats, thinking that they had been lured into an art film.

Norman Jewison has stated that the climactic kitchen sequence was the most difficult scene that he ever shot in his career. The crew was dismissed and Jewison rehearsed with the cast for some time, using a stage production approach. Only after the actors perfected their timing did he decide where to put the camera.

According to casting director Howard Feuer, both Anne Bancroft and Maureen Stapleton had been considered for the role of Cher's mother, but their fees were too expensive for the production budget. Feuer remembered Olympia Dukakis, a character actress known for years to most in casting; she read for director Norman Jewison and he hired her instantly.

Continuity

During the breakfast scene, Cosmo's (Vincent Gardenia) eyeglass frames change from one style to another after his father sits down.

When Johnny comes to Cranberry St from JFK, there is a photo of an old couple next to the coat tree in the front hall. That photo mysteriously moves to the wall of the dining room in the closing shot as the camera backs out of the kitchen through the dining room.

When Rose and Perry are saying goodnight in the street, his coat lapel is alternately open/closed between shots.

After Loretta tells her father she has some news, he gets out of his chair and walks ahead of her into the kitchen - the next scene is in the kitchen and Loretta is ahead of him -- not walking exactly along the same path, but Cosmo is definitely behind her .

When Loretta sits down at Ronnie's kitchen table, a cup and saucer are near her right elbow. In the next "wide" shot, they are gone.



Factual errors

Loretta says "ti amo" to her father, and he answers "ti amo." "I love you" is the accepted English translation, but "ti amo" refers only to romantic love, and would never be used between father and daughter. They would say "ti voglio bene" instead.

When Loretta is leaving Ronny's apartment after saying she would go to the opera with him, he says to meet him at the Met. She comes back and asks "Where's the Met?". She took a cab, which of course would know where the Met is.



Incorrectly regarded as goofs

Ronny and Johnny Cammareri's mother lives in Sicily, even though they were clearly raised in the United States (they have American accents and an established business in Brooklyn). This is perfectly possible -- their mother likely married an American and then moved back to Sicily after he died (that's exactly what my grandmother did after my grandfather passed).

When Johnny visits Rose late at night, she opens the door for him, Johnny walks in, and no one closes the door. Later, the grandfather walks in with his dogs and closes it. No Goof is identified - the door was left open by two people and later the next person through it closed the door. Sometimes people are absent-minded, distracted, or just not paying attention.

Loretta is about to marry Johnny Cammareri, and yet she has never been to his bakery and never met his brother. However, this is not impossible -- Johnny could have divested himself from the business after he and his brother fell out. There's no indication in the story that Johnny is involved in the bakery (it could have been named Cammareri Bros. Bakery at an earlier stage, when he and his brother were still on good terms). So if he isn't involved in the business, and didn't want to talk about his brother in general, it's perfectly possible that Loretta would not go there or even know he had a sibling.



Revealing mistakes

In the opening moments of the film, the 'corpse' in Nucciarone's Funeral Parlor can be seen swallowing, the skin of his neck moving.

Loretta's grandfather enters the kitchen with dogs in front of him. As he walks through, you can see a leash pulling the dogs from off camera.

When Ronny demands that Loretta comes to bed with him, she reaches out to hold his artificial hand, and his thumb moves.

When Nicholas Cage is seen playing an opera phonograph record, the turntable is clearly rotating at 45 RPM. With the exception of certain DJ dance records, the only speed that 12" LPs play at is 33 RPM. So the record was not actually playing. Instead, the sound was dubbed into the scene.

When Loretta picks up one of her new shoes in front of the fire at home, the new shoe's sole is scratched as if worn, not new.



Miscellaneous

When Johnny arrives at the Castorini residence from the airport, Rose opens the door. Both of Johnny's hands are holding suitcases. He enters the foyer. He puts down the suitcases. He and Rose chat then proceed to the living room. Nobody ever closed the front door.



Audio/visual unsynchronized

When Loretta is talking to Cosmo in the kitchen, we hear and see her tearing at the capsule on the wine bottle. In the next shot, we can still see the bottle and hear the tearing, but Loretta's hand is not there.



Errors in geography

Loretta and Jonny leave the Grand Ticino restaurant, seen as being on Hicks St, which is in downtown Brooklyn. Loretta drives Jonny to the airport for his flight to Sicily, traveling via a tunnel. Since it's an international flight, he'd be going to JFK, but there's no need to travel via a tunnel from Brooklyn to JFK.



Boom mic visible

In the final scene, when Rita and Raymond show up, a boom mic is reflected in the glass in the cabinet.



Character error

While at the opera during intermission, Cosmo orders a Canadian Club and ginger ale, and a Dubonnet on the rocks. While he and Mona are drinking, the C.C. and ginger ale isn't being drunk by either of them. Cosmo is drinking the Dubonnet, and Mona is drinking red wine.