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Tin Men
A minor car accident drives two rival aluminum-siding salesmen to the ridiculous extremes of man versus man in 1963 Baltimore.
1987 · Directed by Barry Levinson · 112 min · Comedy · Drama · Screenplay in the scene database · 3 frames
Tagline
The American Dream changes. The people who sell it don't.
Plot
Ernest Tilley and Bill "BB" Babowsky are rival door-to-door aluminum siding salesmen in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1963, an era when "tin men", as they are called, will do almost anything, legal or illegal, to close a sale. Both have the required gift of the gab but while BB is a smooth-talking con man who scams naive young women with his sales pitches, Tilley struggles to close his sales.
The men first meet when BB, driving his new Cadillac automobile off the dealer's lot, backs into Tilley's own Cadillac. Though Tilley had the right of way, each man blames the other and an escalating feud erupts between them. After BB smashes Tilley's headlights and Tilley shatters BB's car windows in response, BB sets out to seduce Tilley's long-suffering wife Nora in revenge. Immediately after having sex with Nora, he calls Tilley to taunt him with the news. Tilley tells BB to keep Nora; he wants to be rid of her.
Meanwhile, both men have their own personal troubles. BB's older partner and mentor, Moe Adams, is hospitalized with a serious heart condition. Tilley has a gambling problem and squanders what little money he makes betting on horse races, causing a rift with Nora. He is in debt to various creditors and the IRS, which begins confiscating his possessions for unpaid property taxes. Exhausted by their rivalry, the two men decide to play a game of pool to decide who should get Nora in order to end their personal war. BB loses but he does not honor the bet. He has fallen in love for the first time,and Nora moves in with him.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Written by: Barry Levinson
- Cinematography: Peter Sova
- Edited by: Stu Linder
- Music: Andy Cox, Roland Gift, David Steele
- Production design: Peter Jamison
- Produced by: Mark Johnson
Cast
- Richard Dreyfuss as Bill 'BB' Babowsky
- Danny DeVito as Ernest Tilley
- Barbara Hershey as Nora Tilley
- John Mahoney as Moe Adams
- Jackie Gayle as Sam
- Stanley Brock as Gil
- Seymour Cassel as Cheese
- Bruno Kirby as Mouse
- J.T. Walsh as Wing
- Richard Portnow as Carly
Production
- Country: United States of America
- Language: English
- Studios: Silver Screen Partners II, Touchstone Pictures
- Themes: friendship, competition, hostility, baltimore, usa, rivalry, scam, car accident, salesmen, 1960s, aluminum
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