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Big Trouble (1985)

Director: John Cassavetes

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From Time Out Film Guide

Presumably directed as a favour to old buddy Falk, Cassavetes' last film is a far cry from the glories of Gloria, Husbands, Shadows and the rest. Indeed, it's absolutely unrecognisable as his work, being a conventionally glossy spoof thriller in which insurance salesman Arkin, desperate for finance to send his musical triplets through Yale, agrees to forge a double indemnity policy on Falk's life for his third wife D'Angelo. Sounds familiar? For the first third, this is a comic reshuffle of moments from Wilder and Chandler's classic Double Indemnity, but then out come the wacky surprises in a chaotically inventive mish-mash of black neurotic humour. Never hysterically funny but scattered with pleasingly OTT moments and throwaway lines, it looks as if Cassavetes merely wanted a) to prove he could make a blandly stylish commercial piece, and b) the cash.

Author: GA 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide

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Cast & crew

Director: John Cassavetes

Producer: Mike Lobell, Andrew Bergman

Cast: Peter Falk, Alan Arkin, Beverly D'Angelo, Charles Durning, Paul Dooley, Robert Stack, Valerie Curtin full cast

Genre(s): Thrillers

Duration: 93 mins


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