BIG TROUBLE

title: BIG TROUBLE

year: 1986

cast: Peter Falk, Alan Arkin, Beverly D'Angelo, Charles Durning

rating: **

This is John Cassavete's last film, but not really. As a replacement for another director, he was helping friends Peter Falk and Alan Arkin in this remake of DOUBLE INDEMNITY, seeming more like a limp sequel to THE IN-LAWS. Arkin, an insurance adjuster, wanting his sons to attend Yale, reluctantly teams with Beverly D'Angelo to kill her supposedly dying husband and... well if you saw the Fred McMurray Noir classic: the plan involves a train, a corpse, and a big payoff. There's no real sign of Cassavete's style, other than a ton of closeups and obvious actor improvisation, which is the problem. A film like this might have worked as a mainstream buddy caper, but ended up a failed indie.