This gentle fable marked a departure from the stark moralizing and often opaque characters of writer/director David Mamet's other films and plays. Mamet co-wrote the screenplay with poet and cartoonist Shel Silverstein, and at times two main characters seem like stand-ins for the writers themselves: Joe Mantegna's callous, pragmatic gangster is Mamet incarnate, and Don Ameche's impish scapegoat is not unlike one of Silverstein's cartoon heroes. As a director, Mamet allows his camera to take in a bit more scenery than usual, and the flat delivery that he imposes on his performers works surprisingly well in a comedy. Ameche's performance is equal parts Marcello Mastroianni and Charles Chaplin: alternately profound and quizzical, he never plays the role merely for slapstick laughs.