Main Cast: Richard Dreyfuss, Danny DeVito, Barbara Hershey, John Mahoney, Jackie Gayle
Release Year: 1987
Country: US
Run Time: 120 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
The second of director Barry Levinson's Baltimore Trilogy (the first was Diner, the third Avalon), Tin Men seems at first glance to be much ado about nothing. Set in 1963, the story begins when two aluminum siding salesmen, played by Richard Dreyfuss and Danny DeVito, are involved in a traffic accident. Fueled by their own individual frustrations--Dreyfuss dislikes the phonier aspects of his profession, while DeVito is unhappily married to Barbara Hershey--the two men begin an all-out war of harassment against one another. DeVito goes on a destructive rampage against Dreyfuss' material possessions, while Dreyfuss contrives to steal away DeVito's wife. An ironic twist of fate ironically, brings the two men to common ground at the finale. As with the earlier Diner, Levinson spends a great deal of screen time showing small minds obsessed with small things: counterpointing the snow-balling hostilities between Dreyfuss and DeVito is Jackie Gayle as DeVito's partner, who can talk of nothing but the TV series Bonanza. Michael Tucker, who like Barry Levinson was Baltimore born and bred, repeats his Diner role as "Bagel." Listen for director Levinson's voice as a baseball stadium announcer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Barry Levinson's episodic comedy on the feud of a couple of aluminum-siding hustlers is often a very funny outing which never meshes convincingly. Returning to the Baltimore of the early '60s, the site of his classic Diner, the director focuses on some older but hardly wiser characters, a pair of "tin men" whose pride in the fraudulence of their sales techniques makes the film something of a Glengarry Glen Ross "lite." Levinson underscores the insecurities of this tribe of capitalist warriors who enjoy bragging about the size of their Caddys and the stupidity of the marks they've just scammed. Danny DeVito, who long ago cornered the market on maniacally petty characters, plays the loudest of the lot, a man so on edge that a simple fender-bender can ignite an escalating orgy of mutual property destruction. The irascible and more successful Richard Dreyfuss character he battles is slightly less crazy, and it is he who finally begins to connect his unhappiness with the dishonesty of his livelihood. If Levinson misses the mark in reaching for a weightier conclusion than the loosely structured script can bear, the film yields at least one immortal comic turn in stand-up Jackie Gayle's running schtick on the more dubious aspects of television's then-popular Bonanza. ~ Michael Costello, All Movie Guide
Stanley Brock - Gil; Seymour Cassel - Cheese; Bruno Kirby - Mouse; J.T. Walsh - Wing; Richard Portnow - Carly; Matt Craven - Looney; Alan Blumenfeld - Stanley; Brad Sullivan - Master; Michael Tucker - Bagel; Joshua Billings - Man At Crash; Walt MacPherson - Cadillac salesman; Deirdre O'Connell - Nellie; Ralph Tabakin - Mr. Hudson; Andy Cox - Band Member; Roland Gift - Band Member; David Steele - Band Member; Eva Jean Berg - Woman At Smorgasbord; Myron Citrenbaum - Murray; Brian Costantini - Arguing Husband; Bill Danoff - Police Officer; David de Boy - Suburban Husband; Susan Duvall - Suburban Housewife; Katherine Ellis - Ruthie; Cindy Geppi - Social Security Girl; William C. Godsey - Belvedere Hotel Barman; Theodore Goldman - Pool Hall Worker; Kathleen Goldpaugh - Arguing Wife; Marcia Herr - Sonial Securtiy Girl; Todd Jackson - Young Boy; Kathy Jones - Mason Dixon Operator; Sheila McCauley - Ada; Florence Moody - Diner Waitress; Mary Morgan - Social Security Girl; Jeffrey Moser - Man At Crash; Lois Raymond Munchel - Mason Dixon Operator; Penny Nichols - Mrs. Shubner; Norma Posner - Mrs. Hudson; Barbara Rappaport - Coffee shop waitress; Ellen Sills - Social Security Girl; Freddie Stevens - Piano Bar Crooner; Michael S. Willis - Mr. Shubner; Sharon Ziman - Mason Dixon Operator
Credit
Kim Kurumada - Associate Producer, Steven Saxton - Associate Producer, Gloria Gresham - Costume Designer, Albert M. Shapiro - First Assistant Director, Barry Levinson - Director, Stu Linder - Editor, Fine Young Cannibals - Composer (Music Score), Andy Cox - Composer (Music Score), David Steele - Composer (Music Score), Irving Buchman - Makeup, Peter Jamison - Production Designer, Peter Sova - Cinematographer, Mark Johnson - Producer, Phillip Abramson - Set Designer, Bill Phillips - Sound/Sound Designer, Barry Levinson - Screenwriter
Tin Men is a 1987 comedy film directed by Barry Levinson and produced by Mark Johnson. It is part of Levinson's series of "Baltimore Films," set in his hometown during the 40's through the 60's. The series, in order, is Diner, Tin Men, Avalon, and Liberty Heights.
Plot
Ernest Tilley and Bill "BB" Babowsky are "tin men" — door-to-door aluminum siding salesmen in Baltimore in 1963. Working for different companies, they are prepared to do almost anything — legal or illegal — to close a sale. BB buys a shiny Cadillac to maintain his image of success and almost immediately crashes into another Cadillac driven by Tilley (all "tin men" drive a Cadillac). It is not clear who is at fault for the accident (BB is entering the public way from the dealer, in reverse but very slowly; Tilley has the right of way, however, he was clearly distracted). This generates a spate of road rage and the two rivals vow to do anything to get back at the other. BB seduces Tilley's wife as an act of revenge, not knowing that Tilley wants to leave her anyway. Exhausted by their rivalry, the two men decide to play a game of pool to decide who should get her. BB loses, but he does not honor the bet.
The then newly formed Maryland Home Improvement Commission is charged with uprooting corrupt sales practices in the home improvements industry calls both men before them and takes away their licenses. Reconciled to their fate, the two men start planning new business deals together.
