Scam among the 'Tim Men'

Press, 28 January 1988, Page 10

Scam among the 'Tim Men'

Bill “B.B.” Babowsky and Ernest Tilley might have been the best of friends — if they had not become the best of enemies after an innocent accident sets them on an ever-accelerating comedic collision course in “Tin Men” which will start at the Metro tomorrow. Richard Dreyfuss is 8.8. and Danny DeVito is Tilley, two rival "tin men” (aluminium siding salesmen) who attempt to outsmart each other in the name of revenge in Baltimore in the early 19605. Barbara Hershey stars as Tilley’s wife, Nora, who becomes an unsuspecting pawn in the

pair’s feud. After delving into mythological baseball in “The Natural” and a fanciful recreation of Victorian England in “Young Sherlock Holmes,” the writer-director Barry Levinson, returned to Baltimore for his fourth film. In addition to being a return to his hometown, the movie marked a return for Levinson to the double duty of his initial career breakthrough with “Diner,” because once again he directed the film from his own original screenplay. Like “Diner,” Levinson’s Oscar-nominated account of adolescent angst

in the 19505, “Tin Men” had the same Baltimore restaurant as its major source of inspiration. “ ‘Tin Men’ takes place on the other side of the diner,” says Levinson. “While my friends and I used to hang out in the right-hand side of the restaurant, the tin men gathered in the left. “We heard stories and scams these guys were up to. They were older, but they didn’t seem particularly responsible, so I was intrigued by that. “Tin men are rebellious in a way, without rebelling against one specific thing. They are flamboyant and have a Damon

Runyonesque quality about them. The movie is not autobiographical, but it does concern characters I knew back in 1963,” Levinson says. “In many ways, ‘Tin Men’ is a spiritual extension of ‘Diner’ and an additional chapter in Barry’s tales of Balitmore,” says producer Mark Johnson. “The characters in ‘Tin Men’ are every bit as colourful and humorous as any in ‘Diner,’ the only difference being that they are involved in a much tighter narrative framework, resulting in more of a ‘story’ film than ‘Diner’ was,” says Johnson.