The Lady in Red/Fun Facts

• This film was the first theatrical film scored by James Horner (but not the first Horner-scored film released).

• Shot in four weeks.

• Lewis Teague was paid $11,000 dollars to direct this film. However, since this movie was made non-union he had to pay his entire salary as a fine to the Director's Guild.

• John Sayles' original script ran 130 pages long.

• John Sayles' original script had a more diverse array of hit songs from the late 20s and early 30s, but this idea had to be nixed because the budget was too low to pay for the clearance rights to all these songs.

• This film performed poorly at the box office. Roger Corman re-released it in 1980 under the title "Guns, Sin and Bathtub Gin" but it did not fare much better.

• When Lewis Teague directed Robert Forster in a short second unit scene for the movie Avalanche (1978), two of them decided that if Teague got to direct a full movie, he would offer Forster a role. However, when the time came, Forster's agent thought the role of Turk was too small for him, and persuaded him to refuse billing.

• Near the climax, Eddie manages to escape from a police blockade by driving backwards. During his audio commentary, John Sayles reveals that he had originally written an earlier scene in which Dillinger taught Eddie how to drive a car backwards. But this scene was cut for time and budgetary reasons and was never shot.

• The set for the whorehouse was laced with Christmas lights on the ceiling.