''Tough Guys Don't Dance'' is a 1987 crime

mystery Mystery, The Mystery, Mysteries or The Mysteries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters *Mystery, a cat character in ''Emily the Strange'' *Mystery, a seahorse that SpongeBob SquarePants adopts in the episode " My Pre ...

drama film written and directed by

Norman Mailer Nachem Malech Mailer (January 31, 1923 – November 10, 2007), known by his pen name Norman Kingsley Mailer, was an American writer, journalist and filmmaker. In a career spanning more than six decades, Mailer had 11 best-selling books, at least ...

based on his novel of the same name. It is a

murder mystery Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, crime novel, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives or fiction that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a profession ...

film noir Film noir (; ) is a style of Cinema of the United States, Hollywood Crime film, crime dramas that emphasizes cynicism (contemporary), cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of Ameri ...

piece. It was screened out of competition at the

1987 Cannes Film Festival The 40th Cannes Film Festival took place from 7 to 19 May 1987. French-Italian actor Yves Montand served as jury president for the main competition. French filmmaker Maurice Pialat won the ''Palme d'Or'', the festival's top prize, for the drama ...

. The film received a mixed reaction from critics and was a

box office bomb A box-office bomb is a film that is unprofitable or considered highly unsuccessful during its theatrical run. Although any film for which the combined production budget, marketing, and distribution costs exceed the revenue after release has te ...

. It was also nominated for four 1988

Independent Spirit Awards The Independent Spirit Awards, originally known as the FINDIE or Friends of Independents Awards, and later as the Film Independent Spirit Awards, are awards presented annually in Santa Monica, California, to independent filmmakers. Founded in ...

Plot

A month after his party-obsessed wife Patty Lareine ( Debra Sandlund) left him, Tim Madden (

Ryan O'Neal Charles Patrick Ryan O'Neal (April 20, 1941 – December 8, 2023) was an American actor. Born in Los Angeles, he trained as an amateur boxer before beginning a career in acting in 1960. In 1964, he landed the role of Rodney Harrington on the ...

) is visited by his father Dougy (

Lawrence Tierney Lawrence James Tierney (March 15, 1919 – February 26, 2002) was an American film and television actor who is best known for his many screen portrayals of mobsters and "tough guys" in a career that spanned over fifty years. His roles mirrored ...

), who tells Tim that he has stopped

chemotherapy Chemotherapy (often abbreviated chemo, sometimes CTX and CTx) is the type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs (list of chemotherapeutic agents, chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) in a standard chemotherapy re ...

because "tough guys don't dance". Tim reveals to his father that there are parts of two murdered bodies in his cellar, and that while he doesn't think that he murdered them, he has been suffering from blackouts and hallucinations. He recalls to his father how he had awoken five days earlier, after spending the night doing

cocaine Cocaine is a tropane alkaloid and central nervous system stimulant, derived primarily from the leaves of two South American coca plants, ''Erythroxylum coca'' and ''Erythroxylum novogranatense, E. novogranatense'', which are cultivated a ...

and having sex with

pornographic film actress A pornographic film actor or actress, pornographic performer, adult entertainer, or porn star is a person who performs sex acts on video that is usually characterized as a pornographic film. Such videos tend to be made in a number of distinct ...

Jessica Pond in front of her partner Lonnie Pangborn, to discover bloody clothing in his car and a new tattoo on his arm featuring the first name of his former girlfriend Madeleine Falco (

Isabella Rossellini Isabella Fiorella Elettra Giovanna Rossellini (; born 18 June 1952) is an Italian actress and model. The daughter of Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman and Italian film director Roberto Rossellini, she is noted for her successful tenure as a Lancôme ...

). The new

Provincetown Provincetown () is a New England town located at the extreme tip of Cape Cod in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, in the United States. A small coastal resort town with a year-round population of 3,664 as of the 2020 United States census, Pr ...

police chief Luther Regency (

Wings Hauser Gerald Dwight "Wings" Hauser (December 12, 1947 – March 15, 2025) was an American actor, screenwriter, film director and musician. A prolific character actor, he appeared in over 100 film and television productions since 1967, and was once cal ...

), who was now married to Madeleine, warned Tim to remove his marijuana stash from the woods before state troopers found it. Tim went to the stash and discovered a severed head hidden under the drugs. He later found out from Regency that Lonnie had committed suicide and Jessica was missing. Flashing back, Tim remembers meeting Madeleine when he was working as a bartender. He then remembers meeting Patty, after he encouraged Madeleine to go swinging with Patty and her then husband Big Stoop (

Penn Jillette Penn Fraser Jillette (born March 5, 1955) is an American Magic (illusion), magician, actor, comedian, musician, inventor, television presenter, and author, best known for his work with fellow magician Teller (magician), Teller as half of the t ...

). Afterwards, Patty promised to get rid of Big Stoop, marry and then divorce a rich man for his money, and then marry Tim so that he could follow his dreams and become a writer. On the trip back Tim and Madeleine fought, which caused their car to crash, and Madeleine suffered injuries that rendered her infertile. Tim recalls reuniting with Patty after spending time in prison for dealing cocaine. Patty told him that she'd married her rich man, Tim's former classmate Wardley Meeks III (

John Bedford Lloyd John Bedford Lloyd (born January 2, 1956) is an American character actor. Life and career Lloyd was born in New Haven, Connecticut, the son of architect Edward Bedford Lloyd (died 1990) and women's clothing designer and wedding planner Ann (1925 ...

), and convinced him to hire Tim as Patty's

chauffeur A chauffeur () is a person employed to drive a passenger motor vehicle, especially a luxury vehicle such as a large sedan or a limousine. Initially, such drivers were often personal employees of the vehicle owner, but this has changed to s ...

. Patty filed for divorce, and Tim testified against Wardley to help her get a large settlement. Tim then recalls the events of yesterday. He reunited with Madeleine, who told him that Regency was having an affair with Patty and suggested they kill both of them. That night, Regency told Tim that he thought Lonnie and Jessica were sent to Provincetown with $2 million by Patty and Wardley to buy cocaine from Tim, and that he suspected Tim murdered Lonnie and Jessica. Tim went to check his stash and discovered that there were now two severed heads there. He was assaulted on the way back by his friends Spider and Stoodie, but he managed to escape with the heads. Back in the present, Dougy identifies the heads as Patty's and Jessica's and disposes of them at sea. Tim is kidnapped at gunpoint by Wardley, who admits to sending Spider and Stoodie to assault him and then killing them both. He takes Tim to Helltown where they, as well as Patty and Jessica, are buried, and tells Tim his side of the story. Wardley and Patty had sent Jessica and Lonnie to buy cocaine from Regency, but Jessica shot Lonnie when he threatened to leave with the money. When Patty and Regency arrived, Jessica threatened to turn them both in, but was shot by Patty. Regency took the money, hid Jessica's head, and had sex with Patty. Later, Wardley shot Patty after she revealed that there never was any cocaine, that she and Regency had scammed him, and that they were

blackmail Blackmail is a criminal act of coercion using a threat. As a criminal offense, blackmail is defined in various ways in common law jurisdictions. In the United States, blackmail is generally defined as a crime of information, involving a thr ...

ing him for an additional $10 million. After telling Tim his story, Wardley shoots himself. Tim returns home to find Madeleine waiting outside for him, and they kiss. Inside, a drunk Regency admits to framing Tim as revenge for what he did to Madeleine, and to being in love with Patty. When Tim tells him that Patty is dead, Regency suffers a stroke. While recovering in bed, Regency taunts Madeleine as inferior to Patty, and Madeleine shoots him. Tim and Dougy dispose of the five bodies at sea, and Madeleine uses the $2 million to buy a house for her and Tim.

Cast

as Tim Madden *

as Madeleine Regency *

as Dougy Madden *

as Luther Regency * Debra Sandlund as Patty Lareine *

as Big Stoop *

as Wardley Meeks III *

Frances Fisher Frances Louise Fisher (born May 11, 1952) is an American actress. She began her career in theater and later starred as Detective Deborah Saxon in the CBS daytime soap opera ''The Edge of Night'' (1976–1981). In film, she is known for her rol ...

as Jessica Pond * R. Patrick Sullivan as Lonnie Pangborn

Production

The script was revised by

Robert Towne Robert Towne (born Robert Bertram Schwartz; November 23, 1934 – July 1, 2024) was an American screenwriter and director. He started writing films for Roger Corman, including '' The Tomb of Ligeia'' in 1964, and was later part of the New Hollyw ...

, a

script doctor A script doctor is a writer or playwright hired by a film, television, or theatre production company to rewrite an existing script or improve specific aspects of it, including structure, characterization, dialogue, pacing, themes, and other elemen ...

. The production was filmed on location in

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

Reception

Box office

The film was a box office bomb, making only , less than a fifth of its $5 million (equivalent to $ million in ) budget.

Critical reception

''Tough Guys Don't Dance'' received mixed reviews. It holds a 39% rating at

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

based on 23 reviews. Hal Hinson of ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'' said that the film was "hard to classify; at times you laugh raucously at what's up on the screen; at others you stare dumbly, in stunned amazement".

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...

, in a star review in the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' praised the cinematography, the

setting, and said that the relationship between Tim and Dougy was the best aspect of the film, but also said that "what is strange is that ''Tough Guys Don't Dance'' leaves me with such vivid memories of its times and places, its feelings and weathers, and yet leaves me so completely indifferent to its plot. Watching the film, I laughed a good deal". However, the film had its supporters.

Jonathan Rosenbaum Jonathan Rosenbaum (born February 27, 1943) is an American film critic and author. Rosenbaum was the head film critic for '' The Chicago Reader'' from 1987 to 2008. He has published and edited numerous books about cinema and has contributed to ...

of the ''

Chicago Reader The ''Chicago Reader'', or ''Reader'' (stylized as ЯEADER), is an American alternative newspaper in Chicago, Illinois, noted for its literary style of journalism and coverage of the arts, particularly film and theater. The ''Reader'' has been ...

'', said "Norman Mailer's best film, adapted from his worst novel, shows a surprising amount of cinematic savvy and style". He continued:

He translates his high rhetoric and macho preoccupations (existential tests of bravado, good orgasms, murderous women, metaphysical cops) into an odd, campy, raunchy comedy-thriller that remains consistently watchable and unpredictable—as goofy in a way as ''Beyond the Valley of the Dolls''. Where
Russ Meyer Russell Albion Meyer (March 21, 1922 – September 18, 2004) was an American filmmaker. He was primarily known for writing and directing a successful series of sexploitation films featuring campy humor, sly satire and large-breasted women, wh ...
featured women with oversize breasts, Mailer features male characters with oversize egos, and thanks to the juicy writing, hallucinatory lines such as 'Your knife is in my dog' and 'I just deep-sixed two heads' bounce off his cartoonish actors like comic-strip bubbles; even his sexism is somewhat objectified in the process.

Michael Wilmington wrote in the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'':

Some will find ''Tough Guys Don't Dance'' ludicrous; others will complain that it lacks big studio movie flash. True—but why mourn the absence of an expertise mostly made to distract audiences from the emptiness of the story they're being told? Whatever else you can say about this film, it's alive with ideas and a rich, strange view of the world. Even at its most awkward moments, Mailer's brilliance shines out of nearly every scene...He almost revives the soul, as well as the surface, of film noir, making it again a dark, lucid mirror of society's corruptions, wicked hypocrisies and evil glamour.

Dave Kehr David Kehr (born 1953) is an American museum curator and film critic. For many years a critic at the ''Chicago Reader'' and the ''Chicago Tribune,'' he later wrote a weekly column for ''The New York Times'' on DVD releases. He later became a c ...

of the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...

'' called the film true camp which can't be created self-consciously, observing that "Mailer begins from a position of personal involvement and at least partial sincerity, which makes the movie's ascent into sheer outrageousness seem more delirious, more dangerous and finally more entertaining. It isn't a good film (it doesn't want to be one), but it is a weird and funny evening at the movies".

Vincent Canby Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who was the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death in 2000. ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' said that the film was "not the high point of the Mailer career, but it's a small, entertaining part of it". The scene in which Tim discovers his wife is having an affair has become famous due to its melodramatic line delivery and repetition of the phrase "Oh man, oh god!" Channel 4 Film said "The overkill is strangely compelling and Mailer's disregard for taste and convention ensure his film is a massive but spectacular and unmissable folly". The film apparently got enough of a following for

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...

, which owns much of

Cannon A cannon is a large-caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder during th ...

's film library, to release the film in an

anamorphic widescreen Anamorphic widescreen (also called full-height anamorphic or FHA) is a process by which a widescreen image is horizontally compressed to fit into a storage medium (photographic film or MPEG-2 standard-definition frame, for example) with a narr ...

edition on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

on September 16, 2003. The disc contained an interview with

, a tour of

and the film's trailer. In August 2021 the film was released on

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

cult film A cult film, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a cult following. Cult films are known for their dedicated, passionate fanbase, which forms an elaborate subculture, members of which engage in repeated ...

label

Vinegar Syndrome Vinegar Syndrome is an American home video distribution company which specializes in "protecting and preserving genre films". The company was founded in 2012 in Bridgeport, Connecticut by Joe Rubin and Ryan Emerson, who created it to restore ...

Awards

Soundtrack

The CD soundtrack composed and conducted by

Angelo Badalamenti Angelo Daniel Badalamenti (March 22, 1937 – December 11, 2022) was an American composer and arranger best known for his film music, notably the scores for his collaborations with director David Lynch, '' Blue Velvet'' (1986), ''Twin Peaks'' (1 ...

is available on Music Box Records label.http://www.musicbox-records.com/en/cd-catalog/55-tough-guys-don-t-dance.html

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tough Guys Don't Dance (Film) 1987 films 1980s crime comedy-drama films 1980s mystery comedy-drama films American Zoetrope films American crime comedy-drama films American LGBTQ-related films American satirical films Films directed by Norman Mailer Films with screenplays by Norman Mailer Films based on American novels Films set in Provincetown, Massachusetts 1987 LGBTQ-related films Films shot in Massachusetts American neo-noir films American independent films Golan-Globus films Films with screenplays by Robert Towne Films based on works by Norman Mailer 1980s satirical films 1987 independent films Golden Raspberry Award–winning films Films produced by Menahem Golan Films about writers Films produced by Yoram Globus 1980s English-language films 1980s American films LGBTQ-related crime comedy-drama films English-language crime comedy-drama films English-language independent films English-language mystery comedy-drama films