''A Night in Heaven'' is a 1983 American romantic

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super- ...

directed by

John G. Avildsen John Guilbert Avildsen (December 21, 1935 – June 16, 2017) was an American film director. He is perhaps best known for directing ''Rocky'' (1976), which earned him the Academy Award for Best Director, and the first three ''The Karate Kid'' fil ...

, starring

Christopher Atkins Christopher Atkins Bomann (born February 21, 1961) is an American actor and businessman, perhaps best known for his debut in the 1980 film '' The Blue Lagoon'' and playing Peter Richards in ''Dallas'' (1983–1984). Early life Christopher Atki ...

as a college student and

Lesley Ann Warren Lesley Ann Warren (born August 16, 1946) is an American actress and singer. She made her Broadway debut in 1963, aged 17, in '' 110 in the Shade''. In 1965 she received wide recognition for playing the title role in the television musical prod ...

as his professor. The film's screenplay was written by

Joan Tewkesbury Joan Tewkesbury (born April 8, 1936) is an American film and television director, writer, producer, choreographer and actress. She had a long association with the celebrated director Robert Altman, writing the screenplays for '' Thieves Like Us ...

. Film critics widely panned the film, but the film itself became better known for

Bryan Adams Bryan Guy Adams (born 5 November 1959) is a Canadian musician, singer, songwriter, composer, and photographer. He has been cited as one of the best-selling music artists of all time, and is estimated to have sold between 75 million and mor ...

' chart-topping single "

Heaven Heaven or the heavens, is a common religious cosmological or transcendent supernatural place where beings such as deities, angels, souls, saints, or venerated ancestors are said to originate, be enthroned, or reside. According to the belie ...

Plot

Outspoken and overconfident Rick Monroe is a jock and a popular guy in college in

Titusville, Florida Titusville is a city in eastern Florida and the county seat of Brevard County, Florida, United States. The city's population was 43,761 as of the 2010 United States Census. Titusville is located along the Indian River, west of Merritt Island and ...

. At the end of his final report for his class, Rick cracks a joke and his prim and proper speech professor, Faye Hanlon, is not amused. After chiding him for his joke, she decides to fail him and make him take the course over again. Faye is going through a slump in her marriage to Whitney Hanlon, a rocket scientist who has just been laid off. Faye's free-spirited sister Patsy, visiting from

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

, takes her to a

strip club A strip club is a venue where strippers provide adult entertainment, predominantly in the form of striptease or other erotic or exotic dances. Strip clubs typically adopt a nightclub or bar style, and can also adopt a theatre or cabaret-style ...

to cheer her up. The show features a performer called "Ricky the Rocket", who is none other than Faye's student Rick. When he notices Faye in the crowd, he gives her a very special lap dance, kissing her in the process. The next day, Faye and Rick run into each other at a school function. Initially, Rick is interested only in convincing Faye to allow him another chance at his final and is rebuffed. He realizes that she is attracted to him and begins flirting. Faye arranges to meet Patsy near her

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...

, only to discover that she has been tricked into seeing another performance by "Ricky the Rocket". Since Patsy has to return home a day early, she turns over use of her hotel room to Faye, who calls Whitney and lies that she and Patsy are staying at Patsy's hotel together. Coincidentally, Rick's mother works in the same hotel, and while visiting his mother, Rick runs into Faye again; they return to Faye's room and have sex. Faye must leave and in her absence, Rick invites his girlfriend Slick to the room where she has sex with him as well. Faye catches them in the shower and, humiliated, flees; she realizes that she has been deceived. Whitney, returning home from an unsuccessful

job interview A job interview is an interview consisting of a conversation between a job applicant and a representative of an employer which is conducted to assess whether the applicant should be hired. Interviews are one of the most popularly used devices for ...

, discovers that Patsy has gone home. Whitney travels to the hotel, where he catches Rick as the latter is exiting. He

kidnaps In criminal law, kidnapping is the unlawful confinement of a person against their will, often including transportation/asportation. The asportation and abduction element is typically but not necessarily conducted by means of force or fear: the ...

Rick at gunpoint, takes Rick to a skiff at a small dock, and forces him to strip. Rick, sobbing, complies. Whitney threatens Rick repeatedly, but ultimately only shoots holes in the skiff, leaving a naked Rick aboard as it sinks. Faye returns home to find Whitney waiting for her; she apologizes and he forgives her. At the end, the couple talk about their problems and resolve them.

Cast

as Rick Monroe *

as Faye Hanlon * Robert Logan as Whitney Hanlon *

Deney Terrio Denis George Mahan (born June 15, 1950), better known as Deney Terrio, is an American choreographer and hosted the television musical variety series ''Dance Fever'' from 1979 to 1985. Early life and career Raised in Titusville, Florida, Terrio ...

as Tony *

Deborah Rush Deborah Rush (born April 10, 1954) is an American actress. She has worked in television, film and on Broadway. In 1984, she was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play for Michael Frayn's comedy ''Noise ...

as Patsy * Sandra Beall as Slick * Alix Elias as Shirley *

Carrie Snodgress Caroline Louise Snodgress (October 27, 1945 – April 1, 2004) was an American actress. She is best remembered for her role in the film ''Diary of a Mad Housewife'' (1970), for which she was nominated for an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award as w ...

as Mrs. Johnson *

Andy García Andrés Arturo García Menéndez (born April 12, 1956), known professionally as Andy García, is a Cuban-born American actor, director and musician. He first rose to prominence acting in Brian De Palma's ''The Untouchables'' (1987) alongside ...

as T.J. the Bartender

Soundtrack

The original music score is composed by

Jan Hammer Jan Hammer () (born 17 April 1948) is a Czech-American musician, composer, and record producer. He first gained his most visible audience while playing keyboards with the Mahavishnu Orchestra during the early 1970s, as well as his film scores f ...

, and the soundtrack features two songs that would later be huge pop hits. "

", co-written and performed by

, would become Adams's first American number one song when it was re-released in 1985. An early version of the song " Obsession", performed on the soundtrack by its co-writers,

Holly Knight ''Ilex'' (), or holly, is a genus of over 570 species of flowering plants in the family Aquifoliaceae, and the only living genus in that family. ''Ilex'' has the most species of any woody dioecious angiosperm genus. The species are evergreen o ...

and

Michael Des Barres Michael Philip Des Barres (born 24 January 1948), the 26th Marquis Des Barres, is an English actor and rock singer. He appeared as Murdoc in the original '' MacGyver'', Nicholas Helman, Murdoc's mentor, on the new reboot of '' MacGyver'' (2016 ...

, would be re-recorded and released as a single by the band

Animotion Animotion is an American synth-pop band from Los Angeles, California, best known for the songs " Obsession", "Let Him Go", "I Engineer", and " Room to Move". Formed in 1983 from the remnants of a retro science-fiction band called Red Zone, t ...

. The film also featured the song "

Dirty Creature "Dirty Creature" is a song by New Zealand art rock group Split Enz. It was released in March 1982 as the lead single from their seventh studio album '' Time and Tide''. Tim Finn had been suffering from panic attacks at the time, and co-wrote the s ...

" by New Zealand/Australian group

Split Enz Split Enz were a New Zealand rock band formed in Auckland in 1972 by Tim Finn and Phil Judd and had a variety of other members during its existence. Originally started as a folk-oriented group with quirky art rock stylings, the band built a ...

Reception

Critical response

Most critics were hostile to ''A Night in Heaven''.

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

found it a "very confusing movie" that "introduces several themes and relationships, and asks some big questions", but "doesn't pay off on any of them".

Vincent Canby Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who served as the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death in ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' dismissed the film, writing, "all boredom breaks loose". The review in ''

People Magazine ''People'' is an American weekly magazine that specializes in celebrity news and human-interest stories. It is published by Dotdash Meredith, a subsidiary of IAC. With a readership of 46.6 million adults in 2009, ''People'' had the lar ...

'' began with "What's this? Flashdunce?"

Box office

Audiences were as hostile to ''A Night in Heaven'' as critics had been. The film was a

box office bomb A box-office bomb, or box-office disaster, is a film that is unprofitable or considered highly unsuccessful during its theatrical run. Although any film for which the production, marketing, and distribution costs combined exceed the revenue after ...

, grossing just over $5.5 million on a $6 million budget.

Accolades

Atkins won the 1983 Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actor.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Night in Heaven, A 1983 films 1983 romantic drama films American independent films American romantic drama films Erotic romance films Films set in universities and colleges Films about striptease Films directed by John G. Avildsen 20th Century Fox films Films set in Florida Golden Raspberry Award winning films 1980s English-language films 1980s American films