Tin Men

Two aluminum siding salesmen in 1963 Baltimore, Bill Babowsky and Ernest Tilley, are strangers until one of them backs into the other's Cadillac. The damage turns out to be the least of it: they work the same trade, live in the same neighborhoods and chase the same customers, and the fender bender becomes the opening shot in a running feud. Their retaliation escalates through pranks and wrecked cars to interference in each other's marriages, and neither man seems able to stop. The pressure builds until their jobs are threatened as well.

Barry Levinson directed and wrote the film, his sixth as director, arriving between Good Morning, Vietnam and Rain Man. Richard Dreyfuss plays Bill and Danny DeVito plays Ernest, with Barbara Hershey as Ernest's wife Nora, John Mahoney as Moe Adams, Jackie Gayle as Sam and Stanley Brock as Gil heading a credited cast of 54. Mark Johnson produced for Touchstone Pictures and Silver Screen Partners II, on a budget of 11 million dollars; the film took in about 25 million worldwide, a solid return.

Critics rated it 7.1 out of 10 across 22 reviews, noticeably warmer than the 6.6 out of 10 from roughly 11,000 votes on IMDb and the 6.3 out of 10 from 146 votes on TMDB, so reviewers took to Levinson's period comedy more readily than general audiences did. It runs 112 minutes.