STILL OF THE NIGHT

It’s the early 1980’s and everyone smokes… a lot! The one character that doesn’t smoke likes to kick back with his preppy collar up and drink lots of Tab! So goes things in Still of the Night, a 1982 psychological thriller starring Roy Scheider as psychologist Sam Rice, and Meryl Streep as Brook Reynolds, the onetime mistress of George Bynum (Joseph Sommer), a patient of Dr. Rice who turns up dead in the film’s first few minutes.

The movie is an obvious homage to the filmmaking of Alfred Hitchcock. Sadly, it seems to be a film where the story was built around that homage rather than having the homage sewn into a more well-crafted story. Plot holes add up as the film mimics scenes or events from Rear Window, The Birds, North by Northwest, Spellbound, Rebecca, and Vertigo. There may be more I missed! The editing includes lots of foreshadowing closeups and jarring transitions which distract from the story’s fluidity.

That said, the acting is respectable and the premise is a good one, though it requires some pretty heavy-handed exposition monologues. The underlying question throughout the movie is whether or not Brook is the person responsible for George Bynum’s murder.

I had a pleasant time watching this one because I’m a huge fan of the genre. It did indeed scare me on a couple of occasions, and I enjoyed trying to keep on top of Hitchcock references once I caught on. It was sometimes silly (don't go back in the house!!!) but so what? It was fun, and it accomplished what it set out to do. However, I personally found it Hitchcocky more by way of Rod Serling’s Night Gallery.