Pacific Heights *** (1990, Melanie Griffith, Matthew Modine, Michael Keaton, Laurie Metcalf) – Classic Movie Review 5545

‘It seemed like the perfect house. He seemed like the perfect tenant. Until they asked him to leave.’ Director John Schlesinger’s scary, satisfying, sweaty-palm 1990 neo noir yuppie horror thriller stars Michael Keaton as Carter Hayes, a prosperous-looking, dangerous charmer who answers a house-share ad. He moves into the home of wimpy young yuppie San Francisco couple Patty Palmer and Drake Goodman (Melanie Griffith and Matthew Modine), and then sets out to terrorise them.

Patty and Drake buy and renovate a large, expensive 19th-century house in the exclusive Pacific Heights neighbourhood of San Fransisco, renting out two apartments on the first floor to cover the mortgage. They rent one to nice Japanese couple Mr and Mrs Watanabe (Mako, Nobu McCarthy). But soon their other apparently perfect tenant Carter Hayes develops into an evil black-souled cancer in the disintegrating lives of Griffith and Modine, whose attempts to evict him and fight back are blocked at every turn with malignant glee by Keaton.

A sprightly Schlesinger expertly captains the rollercoaster ride of fear, and Daniel Pyne’s original screenplay is edgily believable.

The quality cast attacks it with relish, and all three stars are excellent, with Keaton expertly creepy and credible. Plus it is good to have Tippi Hedren, Griffith’s mother, in a cameo. Also in the cast are Laurie Metcalf as the couple’s lawyer Stephanie MacDonald, Carl Lumbly, Dorian Harewood, Luca Bercovici, Nicholas Pryor, Sheila McCarthy, Dan Hedaya, Miriam Margolyes, Guy Boyd, Jerry Hardin, James Staley, Tracey Walter, D W Moffett and Beverly D’Angelo.

The score is by Hans Zimmer.

It cost $18 million and grossed a respectable $29 million in the US and a total $45 million worldwide, but Schlesinger was disappointed at the box office, and (quite wrongly) felt it would have done better with another leading man, feeling Modine lacked the required warmth and sex appeal to make his character sympathetic.

They didn’t film in a Pacific Heights house. The location for the home is in Potrero Hill in San Francisco, at the corner of 19th and Texas Street, with other shooting in Palm Springs, California.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5545

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