A Night in Heaven (1983)

User Rating:

3.9/10   

Director:

John G. Avildsen

Writer:

Joan Tewkesbury (writer)

Release Date:

18 November 1983 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Tagline:

In class, he's just another face in the crowd. In "Heaven," the hottest dance club in town, he's the main attraction.

Plot:

Faye Hanlon is a community-college professor with an emotionally depressed husband and an abundance of sexual frustration...

Plot Keywords:

Dancer | Public Nudity | Male Female Relationship | Sex | Shower

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Christopher Atkins	...	Rick Monroe (Ricky The Rocket)
Lesley Ann Warren	...	Faye Hanlon
Robert Logan	...	Whitney Hanlon
Deborah Rush	...	Patsy
Deney Terrio	...	Tony
Sandra Beall	...	Slick
Alix Elias	...	Shirley
Carrie Snodgress	...	Mrs. Johnson
Amy Lyndon	...	Eve
Fred Buch	...	Jack Hobbs
Karen Margaret Cole	...	Louise
Don Cox	...	Revere
Veronica Gamba	...	Tammy
Joseph Gian	...	Pete Bryant
Bill Hindman	...	Russel

Runtime:

83 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Australia:R | UK:18 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Titusville, Florida, USA

Trivia:

The song "Heaven" by 'Bryan Adams' appeared on the soundtrack of this film before the release of his album "Reckless" a year later.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Faye and Patsy are talking at the airport, Patsy is holding her magazines with her left arm. When they hug, the magazines jump to her right arm.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Retrosexual: The 80's" (2004)

Soundtrack:

Heaven

Atkins gets a Warren piece.

Heavenly, this film is not, but I must admit that it is one of my guilty pleasures.

The story centers on a community college speech teacher (Warren) with a recently laid-off husband. Her wild sister drags her to a male strip club one night where she discovers that her lazy student (Atkins) is the star attraction. Wouldn't you know it, eventually the teacher is getting private lessons from the student. It's really about temptation and devotion and the fight between the two.

While the plot and styles are incredibly dated, thee are some things to recommend about this film. Warren gives a strong performance, doing as much with the material as she can. Her transition from constricted and conflicted wife to released vixen is convincing. Her frustrated husband, Logan, also does a fine job. Atkins is Atkins and does nothing more than offer lingering stares and lots of skin.

What makes this film a guilty pleasure is the good use of Bryan Adams' music and one of the more erotic love scenes ever filmed with someone of Warren's stature (this was around the time she blew audiences away with her Oscar-nominated performance in Victor/Victoria). If you never thought of Warren as a sexual dynamo, stick around. Some cuts of the love scene contain a shot of Atkin's manhood, which shocked me even back then.

There are some dramatic elements involving the husband and his frustrations, as well as Warren's inner conflicts, but the film is far too short to go into these too deeply.

It's not a good film by any means but I do think it tried to be something more than the trash it was. Perhaps some of the plot ended up on the dance-room floor.