Did You Know?
Writers Joel Coen and Ethan Coen suffered writer's block while writing Miller's Crossing. They took a three week break and wrote Barton Fink a film about a writer with writer's block. The name of Tom Regan's residence is "The Barton Arms". In one of the newspapers an article reads 'Seven Dead in Hotel Fire,' another reference to Barton Fink.
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The character of Leo was written for Trey Wilson, who played Nathan Arizona, Sr, in the Coens' previous film, Raising Arizona. Wilson died shortly before production began, so Albert Finney took over the role.
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The Miller of the title comes from the Coen Brothers' frequent film editor, Michael R. Miller.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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The line "Jesus, Tom" is said 8 times: 3 times by Leo, and once each by Frankie, Mink, Bernie, Chief O'Doole and Mayor Levander.
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The fight poster in Drop Johnson's apartment has as the under card a fight featuring "Bunky Knudsen." Semon "Bunkie" Knudsen was the President of Ford Motor Company in 1969, and before that a top executive at General Motors. the poster also includes the name Lars Thorvald, which is a reference to 'Alfred Hitchcock''s Rear Window.
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'Yegg' is a US slang term, with three main meanings - safe-cracker, itinerant burglar, or thug. The last is the most likely meaning used in the context of this film.
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Reagan toasts Volstead, outside the Casper's premises during the police raid. Andrew Volstead served as the sponsor and facilitator of the National Prohibition Act in the US Congress. It supported the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, effectively establishing Prohibition.
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Bernie is referred to as a Schmatte. 'Schmatte' is a Yiddish word for an old rag and was also used colloquially as a label for things of poor quality or anything worthless. Casper's use is derogatory, labeling Bernie as worthless both as a man and as a Jew.
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The last Coen film Barry Sonnenfeld did the cinematography for. It was his favorite one because it was such an easy shoot.
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The city where the story takes place is never named directly in the film. However, there is a clue late in the film which points to the New York City area: Tom tells Verna to leave town and go to "the Palisades" until everything blows over. The Palisades is stretch of rocky cliffs of Bergen County in Northern New Jersey and Rockland County of New York State.
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Cameo
Albert Finney:
In the ladies restroom scene, when Tom enters, Albert Finney (who also plays Leo) can be seen in drag as a (rather big) matron dressed in black and white on Tom's left side.
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