Stormy Monday (1988)

A crooked American businessman tries to push the shady influential owner of a nightclub in Newcastle, England to sell him the club. The club's new employee and the American's ex lover fall in love and inadvertently stir the pot.

Director:

Mike Figgis

Writer:

Mike Figgis

Stars:

Melanie Griffith, Tommy Lee Jones, Sting

1 win & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Melanie Griffith	...	Kate
Tommy Lee Jones	...	Cosmo
Sting	...	Finney
Sean Bean	...	Brendan
James Cosmo	...	Tony
Mark Long	...	Patrick
Brian Lewis	...	Jim
Ying Tong John	...	1st Heavy
Mick Hamer	...	Pianist
Ian Hinchcliffe	...	Man at Record Shop
Andrzej Borkowski	...	Andrej
Caroline Hutchison	...	Finney's Secretary Jean
Les Wilde	...	Customs Officer
Desmond Gill	...	Man in Airport Lounge
Benny Graham	...	Passport Officer

Storyline

Brendan takes a job as janitor for Finney, who runs a jazz nightclub in the Northern English city of Newcastle. But Finney is being pressured to sell his club, and Brendan soon provides non-janitorial services to Finney. Soon his rival's American boss Cosmo comes to town, while Brendan begins to fall in love with Kate, an escort working for Cosmo.

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Plot Keywords:

criminal | club | nightclub | newcastle | england | 

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Taglines:

The Most Dangerous Choices Are Made With The Heart

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Music | Romance

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

UK USA

Language:

English Polish

Release Date:

May 1988 (USA)

Also Known As:

Burni ponedeljak

Filming Locations:

Queen Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, England, UK

Box Office

Gross USA:

$1,791,328

Company Credits

Production Co:

Atlantic Entertainment Group, British Screen Productions, Film Four International

Technical Specs

Runtime:

93 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color (Rankcolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Partly filmed on location in the UK's Newcastle-upon-Tyne, birthplace of co-star Sting.

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Quotes

Bob: Nobody said anything about guns! They've got guns, and I think we need guns!
Cosmo: [sarcastically] That's smart thinkin', Bob. That's real smart thinkin'. All the damn money I spread around here, and you want to go play Al Capone with some fuckin' meatball! You fuckin' juvenile!

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Connections

Spin-off Finney (1994)

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Soundtracks

(Call It) Stormy Monday
Performed by B.B. King
Written by T-Bone Walker (as Aaron T. Walker)
(c) 1948 Gregmark Music Inc.
Courtesy of MCA Records
Recorded at Mediasound
Produced by Trade Martin

User Reviews

narcissistic neo-noir

These days a romantic thriller usually means sex, violence, and lots of neon lights, but underneath the typically sultry mood of this latter-day film noir there's a cool intelligence at work. Writer director Mike Figgis combines several strands of plot which otherwise have little in common, involving a moody nightclub owner, a dangerous American entrepreneur, his part-time mistress, and her new, younger boyfriend, all of them in an industrial British seaport dressed up for a hands-across-the-water civic promotion. A movie so self-absorbed with mood and imagery shouldn't work as well as this, but what sets the film apart from other neo-noir facsimiles is the unusual trans-Atlantic blend of talent and the emphasis on cross-cultural confusion, best expressed by a free-jazz rendition (by the Krakow Jazz Ensemble) of the Star Spangled Banner. The atmospheric visual style isn't enough to camouflage the shortcomings of the script, but Figgis maintains the drama at an admirably low-key level, and the location photography in the city of Newcastle takes excellent advantage of an appropriately gritty urban environment.