Big Trouble (1986)

Insurance agent plots with client to kill her nutty husband.

Director:

John Cassavetes

Writer:

Andrew Bergman

Stars:

Peter Falk, Alan Arkin, Beverly D'Angelo

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Peter Falk	...	Steve Rickey
Alan Arkin	...	Leonard Hoffman
Beverly D'Angelo	...	Blanche Rickey
Charles Durning	...	O'Mara
Robert Stack	...	Winslow
Paul Dooley	...	Noozel
Valerie Curtin	...	Arlene Hoffman
Richard Libertini	...	Dr. Lopez
Steve Alterman	...	Peter Hoffman
Jerry Pavlon	...	Michael Hoffman
Paul La Greca	...	Joshua Hoffman
John Finnegan	...	Det. Murphy
Karl Lukas	...	Police captain
Maryedith Burrell	...	Gail
Edith Fields	...	Doris

Storyline

Insurance agent plots with client to kill her nutty husband.

---

Plot Keywords:

remake

---

Genres:

Comedy

---

Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

30 May 1986 (USA)

Also Known As:

A Grande Burla

Filming Locations:

Phoenix, Arizona, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Columbia Pictures Corporation, Delphi III Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

93 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

John Cassavetes' last film as director

---

Connections

References The Great Escape (1963)

---

Soundtracks

"excerpt from 'La Bohème'"
Written by Giacomo Puccini

User Reviews

Clearing up the Directorship Issue

I worked on this film in 1986, in a scene that was ultimately left on the cutting room floor. When I auditioned for the film, I met with the director, who was in fact, Andrew Bergman (credited solely as the writer). Several weeks went by before I actually worked, and by that time, Bergman had been replaced by John Cassevetes. What I was told at the time, was that Bergman had been fired, and that Falk, a friend of Cassevetes, recommended that Cassevetes come in to finish the job. I don't know how much of the film was already in the can at that point, but I know that Cassevetes changed the script a bit. In the scene I was involved in, Falk and Arkin go into a hardware store to buy dynamite to blow up a building (An insurance office, as I recall). I played the Hardware store clerk. I remember the script being pretty much thrown out the window, and improvising much of the dialog, which included Falk explaining that the dynamite was need for a luau. "My Wife," he said, "makes a suckling pig, that'll knock your eye out. First you baste it––" "With clarified butter," Arkin chimes in. "Then blast the sh*t of it with dynamite." As the clerk, I apologize that the store doesn't carry dynamite, and end up selling them a hundred pounds of charcoal briquettes instead.

Funny.

And you will likely never see this scene.

Ah well.