A troubled production history notwithstanding, BIG TROUBLE remains a lighthearted updating of the classic film noir DOUBLE INDEMNITY. Alan Arkin stars as Leonard Hoffman, an insurance salesman and father of triplets. When it becomes apparent that his dream of sending his three sons to Yale is financially impossible, opportunity presents itself in the form of Blanche (Beverly D'Angelo), sexy wife of Steve Rickey (Peter Falk), who convinces Leonard to trick her husband into signing an obscure life insurance plan that promises a huge payoff if he dies while falling from a train. After the mission is seemingly accomplished, Steve reappears, confusing matters, and thereby sending Leonard's life into an official tailspin. Director John Cassavetes's is credited as the director of BIG TROUBLE; he actually stepped in as a replacement. Although the film is therefore not a unique Cassavetes document, it manages to breeze along, guided by the performances of Falk (a Cassavetes standby) and Arkin, stars of 1979's THE IN-LAWS.
In this spoof of classic film noir, an unassuming man (Alan Arkin) devises an elaborate insurance fraud scheme in order to raise the funds necessary to send his three sons to Yale. His plan involves collecting on an accidental death policy that mirrors the ploy from Billy Wilder's DOUBLE INDEMNITY. However, when it turns out that the joke has been played on him, he must find a way out of his seemingly hopeless predicament. BIG TROUBLE was directed by John Cassavetes as a gun-for-hire; Peter Falk and Beverly D'Angelo star as a not-so-happily-married couple.
Theatrical release: September 27, 1985.
BIG TROUBLE was John Cassavetes's last directorial credit; he came in as a replacement as a favor to his friends, who were involved in the film's production. Writer Ray Carney quotes Cassavetes in a conversation just before he died as being dismayed that "people not only would think I made BIG TROUBLE, but that it was my final film."
Screenwriter Warren Bogle is also known as screenwriter-director Andrew Bergman.
Rosemarie Stack, the real-life wife of actor Robert Stack, plays his wife, Mrs. Winslow, in the film.
DVD Features:
Region 1
Keep Case
Widescreen - 1.85
Audio:
Dolby Digital Mono - English
Additional Release Material:
Trailers
Director of Photography
Bill Butler: Director of Photography, THE PLAGUE (2006)
Review 1:
"...Deliciously funny....BIG TROUBLE is crisp, polished and handsome....As for Falk and Arkin, BIG TROUBLE represents a career high point for both of them..."
Source: Los Angeles Times
p.C17 06/27/1986
Review 2:
"[A] bizarrely watchable spoof thriller, riffing on DOUBLE INDEMNITY..."
Source: Uncut
p.143 01/01/2004
Review 3:
"...Cassavetes did a creditable job directing his actors..."
Source: Variety
06/04/1986
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