On S List of Movie Reviews
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Still of the Night (1982)
Rate:
5
Viewed:
4/25
4/25:
For a murder mystery thriller, Still of the Night is a one big nothing.
Robert Benton...Meryl Streep...Robert Benton...Meryl Streep? Oh,
yeah...Kramer vs. Kramer. This time, they want to be like Alfred
Hitchcock and Grace Kelly and revive the blond fetish with Roy Scheider stepping in for James Stewart of
Vertigo. Spellbound is what
they're aiming for the most but in a different way.
There's a careful orchestration to build up the suspense with a significant dream thrown in. I was with
everybody until Meryl Streep went dramatic to have an "Oscar-winning" clip of her own. That's when I began
to laugh, especially when she used her hands to demonstrate the physical fight. All of a sudden, Roy
Scheider went, "I got it! This person killed my patient!" only because time had run out. I have a better
idea: let the cops handle that.
Talk about air coming out of the balloon when the murderer showed up at the end to turn
Still of the Night into a run-of-the-mill slasher picture. How predictable the next moment will be
when Meryl Streep lured her to the fence of the balcony, and there's the sight of water crashing against
the rocks 100 yards below as if they're on the cliffs in England when it's supposed to be Long Island, New York.
Anyway, the performances are fine. Robert Benton just needs to make several fixes here and there and then redo
the last fifteen minutes starting with Meryl Streep's monologue. One of them is the idea of a woman walking
alone in Central Park at night where she could be robbed and raped. Another is the psychiatrist deciding to spend
$15,000 so he could pass a simple note to Brooke. How about getting up and walking over to where she is?
The third is the murderer killing the detective. What's there to gain from it?
All in all, like Tab soda, Still of the Night disappeared quickly because Alfred Hitchcock did it
so better.