The Big Kahuna

The Big Kahuna takes place largely in a hotel hospitality suite in Wichita, Kansas, during an industrial lubricants manufacturers' convention. Three salesmen for the same company are there to host a reception and to court a client important enough to be nicknamed the big kahuna, whose order could reverse the firm's declining sales. Phil Cooper is a weary veteran of the business, Larry Mann is a talkative colleague with a taste for confrontation, and Bob Walker is a young newcomer on his first business trip, recently married and devout in his faith. While they wait for the client to appear, the three men argue about work, religion, ethics and how to sell, and the evening turns into a test of what each of them believes.

John Swanbeck directed the film, from a screenplay by Roger Rueff, and it was produced by Kevin Spacey, Elie Samaha and Andrew Stevens. The cast is small and mostly confined to one room: Spacey plays Larry, Danny DeVito plays Phil, and Peter Facinelli plays Bob, with Paul Dawson as a bellboy.

Made for about 7 million dollars, the film took roughly 4 million dollars worldwide. Its ratings sit above that commercial result but only modestly: a critics' score of 6.5 out of 10 from 79 reviews, alongside a TMDB figure of 6.8 out of 10 from 379 votes, indicating a film that found a limited but receptive audience rather than a wide one.