Walter Schumann's score samples a cue from Miklós Rózsa's score from The Killers. The same cue would later be used in the Dragnet series (radio, television and film).
Cody (Joe Don Baker) is threatened in a diner. When the hoodlums leave, one of them says, "You're lucky. You should play the horses" - a direct quote from The Killers
The scene where James and his 'partner' hold up the diner is 'homaged' in the opening scene in the diner--looks too spookily similar (frame composition and lighting and style) not to be an homage??