A NIGHT IN HEAVEN (1983)

 

1983 was a good year for bad movies: THE LONELY LADY, JAWS 3-D, AMITYVILLE 3-D, STAYING ALIVE, PRIVATE SCHOOL, CHAINED HEAT, or this next main topic film, A NIGHT IN HEAVEN, a pre-MAGIC MIKE fiasco which promises to be hot and steamy but barely delivers. I was still in the closet during that time (coming out just a year later), struggling to find my ways and survive. So you can imagine how freaking excited I was catching this film on opening day. Yes, opening day.

 

THE BLUE LAGOON Christopher Atkins stars as an obnoxious college student who, by day, struggles to make the grade and, by night, strips down to his skivvies at a Florida hotspot for ladies only. One of whom ends up being the teacher who is actually flunking him. Leslie Ann Warren is that teacher, just off from her hilariously stellar performance in VICTOR/VICTORIA. In A NIGHT IN HEAVEN she plays a repressed married woman who, though she has a hot husband (77 SUNSET STRIP Robert Logan), can’t get her hands off Atkins. Atkins, however, just wants a passing grade so he can eventually graduate. Or is there more to it than that? It all comes down to Warren’s hubby finding out about the affair, Atkins almost giving the hubby a lap dance (don’t ask), and Warren saving her marriage by talking it through with her husband.

 

Clearly A NIGHT IN HEAVEN is far from being perfect. The whole premise is pretty much an unintentional laughing streak. The script, penned by NASHVILLE  alumna  Joan Tewkesbury, barely makes any sense at all, and the performances go from average (Warren, Logan) to simply amateurish (Atkins, who won a Razzie for worst actor that year). But despite all of those negative attributes, A NIGHT IN HEAVEN still beckons with its ‘80s flair, its then-pushing of the envelope (naked men), not to mention its high aura of camp. I swear, it’s almost impossible to stray away from the screen, once pretty much invested. It’s like watching an argument happening right in front your eyes. You may find it distasteful and immature, but the temptation to see it through still remains.

 

The film is directed by John G. Avildsen, the guy who six years prior won an Academy Award for ROCKY and later on took the reins of THE KARATE KID saga. Just go to show you that every acclaimed directors, whether from Hollywood or somewhere else, has at least one bad movie in them. Thank heavens for that, for we, lovers of such films, wouldn’t have it any other way. We just have to be patient and in the end hope for the worst.   

 

 

Until next post—Martin

 

 

 

79 PARK AVENUE: THE MINISERIES (1977)

Lesley Ann Warren is quite good in the TV adaptation of Harold Robbins’ 79 PARK AVENUE. In fact, she’s more than good.  She’s astounding; probably why she won a Golden Globe for her role in 1978. A rare thing really when you stop to consider the many actresses who have landed parts in these cheesy miniseries throughout the years. However 79 PARK AVENUE is more than just cheese. It’s actually a riveting tale of good girl gone bad amidst the Great Depression and beyond. It aired on NBC as a three part event in 1977. I was a tad too young to ever catch it back then but I remember hearing about it later on. It was supposed to be very daring for its time. Obviously I had to get a hold of it. It took me quite a while to finally see what all the fuss was about, like 40 years or so, and indeed, the stuff is daring for network television but let me assure you right away that it is all handled with the utmost care. In fact, I can declare 79 PARK AVENUE to be one the classiest miniseries ever to be produced. 

The story is quite fetching: Warren plays Marja, a poor but beautiful girl from Brooklyn who has the worst of luck in men.  Not only is she attracted to bad rich boy hunky Mark Singer who humiliates her one time in front of his parents but she also has to deal with her lecherous stepdad whom she stabs after raping her one drunken night. Choosing to keep quiet to spare her bed-ridden mom she ends up in the juvies for a few months. When she finally gets out, broke and stuck with a mother at a hospital, she rekindles with Singer as tough call girl Marianne to pay the bills. With no judgment on his part (he loves her, people) he offers her marriage as a way out and she accepts but swears that she will never love him. She holds her end of the bargain throughout the birth of a child (not his but more on that later) and right before he gets shot by the mob. Widowed, she is forced to take over the business of 79 PARK AVENUE, the call girl ring disguised as a model agency where she used to work. 

Soon more trouble ensues in the form of a district attorney team who want to frame her ass, and they do when her place of business is raided right after she kills Singer’s despicable and mob-friendly dad in self-defence. Cross-examined in court, we hear her sad tale of a sordid life as well as of the real identity of her daughter’s father who turns out to be prosecutor and ex-lover David Dukes (who’s very present throughout the miniseries). It is only when he states that she is incapable of committing first degree murder—being put on the witness stand and all—that Warren is finally found, to our happy relief, not guilty. Convicted anyway on vice charges (shoot!), she tearfully hands him their child. Along a catchy score composed by Nelson Riddle (FUNNY GIRL, 1974 THE GREAT GATBSY) he tells her that he’ll wait for her while she’s behind bars, and we the spectators ball our eyes out as the end credits roll.  

Rare is a miniseries as riveting as this one and for all the good reasons. Top notched actors, story, direction… They really went all out, and I’m more than thrilled. I don’t understand why it’s never been available on DVD or Blu-ray. Probably a copyright thing. Thank heaven I finally was able to catch it anyway. Just goes to show you that even sleazy novels such as this one can impress on-screen when put in the right hands (and that would be Paul Wendkos in this case who later on directed the spectacular CELEBRITY miniseries in 1984). Together with both screen adaptations of THE CARPETBAGGERS and WHERE LOVE HAS GONE, 79 PARK AVENUE is a definite Robbins must-see.

Until next post—Martin