BIG TROUBLE (SOUS-TITRES FRANAIS)

Details

• Release Year: 1986
• Genre: Comedy
• Plot: At first glance, Big Trouble seems to be an uneven ode to Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity (1944). As in Wilder's film, a femme fatale, Blanche Rickey (Beverly D'Angelo), convinces an insurance salesman, Leonard Hoffman (Alan Arkin), to murder her husband, Steve (Peter Falk), in order to collect a $5 million insurance policy. But a sharp insurance fraud investigator, O'Mara (Charles Durning), thwarts their plans, while Hoffman learns that Steve was never actually killed. And in this plot turn, Big Trouble initiates a theme that runs through all of Cassavetes' work, that is, his interest in ruinous deceptions and failed relationships. ; ; Typically, Cassavetes provides complex characters, whom we never entirely like, and refuses to explain fully their motivations. Big Trouble, however, is only concerned with investigating the basic deception. The intimate reality that lies beneath this scheming remains unseen.; ; Much of the film's humor comes from its parodies of stereotypes. Devious Blanche is surely out of place in the 1980s 'burbs, and as such, she embodies male anxieties about female fidelity and love. Both Leonard and Steve fall prey to her, unable to tell whether her seductions are genuine, or if there is anything genuine about her at all. Steve, in turn, is a parody of conventional masculinity. Dressed in jungle fatigues and hat, posed in pictures with rifles and slain animals, he is a Hemingway character come to life 50 years too late. In one of the film's most hilarious scenes, Steve offers hen-pecked Leonard a potent Norwegian liqueur, calling it 'really a man's drink.' Leonard takes a large sip, then, unwilling to admit that he can't handle it, nods approval as his gag reflex forces him to rid his mouth. Steve offers him another drink that might suit him more. But Leonard insists, in a gruff voice, 'This was fine. This was plenty.' ; ;
• Cast: Peter Falk, Alan Arkin, Beverly D'Angelo, Charles Durning, Robert Stack, Paul Dooley, Valerie Curtin, Richard Libertini, Steve Alterman, Jerry Pavlon, Paul La Greca, John Finnegan, Karl Lukas, Maryedith Burrell, Edith Fields, Warren Munson, Rosemarie Stack, Barbara Tarbuck, Al White, Teddy Wilson, Gloria Gifford, Herb Armstrong, Jaime Sánchez, Gaetano Lisi, Chester Grimes, Irene Olga López, Daphne Eckler, Carol Reinhard, Conroy Gedeon, Leonard P. Geer, Melvin Jones, Luis Contreras, John M. Kochian Jr., Domingo Ambriz, John Bianchini, Nafa Rasho, Roger Ito, Perry Fluker, Lynn Ready, Steven Lambert, Yukio G. Collins, Howard Clapp, Jeff Howard, Leland Sun, Al Leong, Danny Lew, Michaelani, Dennis Phun, Walter Soo Hoo, Richard Walter, Joseph G. Medalis, Michael Santiago, John Cassavetes
• Director: John Cassavetes
• Runtime: 1:33
• Media Format: Movie