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Big Trouble (1986 film)

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Big Trouble
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJohn Cassavetes
Written byWarren Bogle
Produced byMike Lobell
Starring
CinematographyBill Butler
Edited byDonn Cambern
Ralph E. Winters
Music byBill Conti
Production
company
Distributed byColumbia Pictures
Release date
  • May 30, 1986 (1986-05-30)
Running time
93 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Big Trouble is a 1986 American comedy film and the last film directed by John Cassavetes. The cast reunites Peter Falk and Alan Arkin, co-stars of The In-Laws, and also features Beverly D'Angelo, Charles Durning and Valerie Curtin.

The film's plot was so similar to that of Double Indemnity that, prior to production, Columbia Pictures requested Universal Pictures (rightsholder for the Paramount film Double Indemnity) to grant permission to reuse the plot of the earlier film. Universal executive Frank Price, who had previously worked at Columbia, was aware that Columbia was holding on to a script called Back to the Future and made a deal which enabled Universal to take over the ownership of that script.[1]

Plot

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Leonard Hoffman is a Los Angeles insurance agent with a problem on his hands. He has teenage triplets who are all gifted musicians but wife Arlene insists that the kids attend college at Yale, requiring more than $40,000 in tuition, which would be a good deal more than the nearby UCLA.

This situation is on Leonard's mind when he pays a business call to the Beverly Hills mansion of Steve and Blanche Rickey. He is met by a flirtatious and scantily clad Blanche, who explains a problem of her own: Steve is dying, with less than a week to live, but has inadvertently allowed his life insurance policy to lapse.

A scheme is hatched involving a policy with a double-indemnity clause, but for this to work, Steve will need to die in an unexpected fashion; will he or won't he co-operate?

Cast

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Reception

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Andrew Bergman wrote the original screenplay and was slated to direct before Cassavetes was hired. Cassavetes disliked the film and called it "the aptly titled 'Big Trouble,'" as the studio vetoed many of his decisions and he disagreed with the manner in which the studio edited the film. Bergman said: "That was a mess. I never fixed the ending, and that was the problem. You’ve got to have it when you get it on the floor. You can’t say, 'Later, we’ll get it straight.' It’s true in every medium. You’ve got to hit the ground running, and we didn’t. I never had the ending straight.".[2] As a result, Bergman requested to be billed as Warren Bogle on the finished film.

The film had polarizing response; on Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a "Rotten" rating of 17% based on 6 reviews, with an average rating of 4.8/10.[3] On the other hand, on Metacritic, the film has a rating of 70 out of 100 based on 8 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[4]

References

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  1. ^ Fleming, Mike Jr. (October 21, 2015). "Blast From The Past On 'Back To The Future': How Frank Price Rescued Robert Zemeckis' Classic From Obscurity". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved October 22, 2015.
  2. ^ Snetiker, Marc (9 January 2015). "Andrew Bergman on writing 'Blazing Saddles,' 'Striptease,' 'Honeymoon in Vegas' and more". Entertainment Weekly.
  3. ^ "Big Trouble (1986)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2021-01-01.
  4. ^ "Big Trouble (1986)". Metacritic. Retrieved 20 June 2022.
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