It took nearly two years after its completion for Big Trouble to reach the big screen. Peter Falk and Alan Arkin are respectively cast as a shady wheeler-dealer and an uptight family man. Strapped for the cash necessary to send his son to Yale, Arkin reluctantly enters into a murder scheme with Beverly D'Angelo. She is married to Falk, who, though he hasn't got long to live due to a heart ailment, may very well spend every penny D'Angelo has before he expires. Arkin is persuaded to kill Falk before this happens, then split the money with D'Angelo. To Arkin's amazement he finds himself the victim of a carefully prepared confidence scam engineered by Falk and D'Angelo. Now that he has a hold over Arkin, Falk gets the poor fellow mixed up in yet another "perfect crime".
~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide