Trivia / The In-Laws

• California Doubling: Some of the New Jersey scenes, as well as the highway chase scene, were shot in Los Angeles. Also, the Honduras scenes (except for the highway chase scene) were all shot in Mexico.
• Corpsing: Alan Arkin admitted during the scenes with Sheldon, Vince, and General Garcia, you can see him coming very close to doing this, and he had to put his hand over his mouth to avoid laughing on camera.
• Enforced Method Acting: Peter Falk didn't think he'd be able to laugh when Sheldon and Vince drive away, after having been rescued by the CIA, and after making off with $5 million each, so Alan Arkin squeezed Falk's knees, which got Falk to laugh.
• Fake Nationality: American actor Richard Libertini as the Latin American dictator General Garcia.
• Irony as She Is Cast: Peter Falk was actually rejected by the CIA when he applied to work for them in the 1950's, because of his association with a left-wing union.
• Real-Life Relative: Alan Arkin's wife at the time, Barbara Dana, plays a bank teller.
• Throw It In!: Originally, the car chase scene had no dialogue in it, but when Peter Falk told Alan Arkin about a chicken sandwich he had eaten one day, Arkin convinced him, and the others, to put it in the film.
  • Arkin also came up with the idea of having the guards sing "Trees", and his and Falk's dialogue while facing the firing squad was improvised.
  • Also, James Hong's dialogue when doing the flight safety speech was almost completely improvised, and it was his decision to do it in Cantonese.
• What Could Have Been: Originally, this was planned as a sequel to Freebie and the Bean, until Alan Arkin (who regards that movie as an Old Shame) nixed the idea.

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