Tough Guys Don't Dance is a 1987 crime mystery comedy-drama film written and directed by Norman Mailer based on his novel of the same name.

He recalls to his father how he had awoken five days earlier, after spending the night doing cocaine and having sex with pornographic film actress 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).

The new Provincetown police chief Luther Regency (Wings Hauser), who was now married to Madeleine, warned Tim to remove his marijuana stash from the woods before state troopers found it.

[9] Hal Hinson of The Washington Post 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".

[10] Roger Ebert, in a 2+1⁄2 star review in the Chicago Sun-Times praised the cinematography, the Provincetown setting, and said that the relationship between Tim and Dougy was the best aspect of the film, but also had to say 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.

Jonathan Rosenbaum of the Chicago Reader, said "Norman Mailer's best film, adapted from his worst novel, shows a surprising amount of cinematic savvy and style."

Also, "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.

"[12] Michael Wilmington of the Los Angeles Times wrote that "some will find Tough Guys Don't Dance ludicrous; others will complain that it lacks big studio movie flash.

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.

"[13] Dave Kehr of the Chicago Tribune 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.

"[14] Vincent Canby of The New York Times said that the film was "not the high point of the Mailer career, but it's a small, entertaining part of it".

[15] 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!"