The Bedroom Window **** (1987, Steve Guttenberg, Elizabeth McGovern, Isabelle Huppert) – Classic Movie Review 4,387

Curtis Hanson’s twisty, quite brilliant 1987 neo-noir film The Bedroom Window stars Steve Guttenberg as Terry, who makes love to Sylvia (Isabelle Huppert), his boss’s wife. There ensues a nail-biting, sexy adult thriller that Hitchcock would have admired.

Screenwriter-director Curtis Hanson’s twisty, quite brilliant little 1987 American neo-noir psychological thriller film The Bedroom Window stars Steve Guttenberg as Terry, who makes love at his apartment to Sylvia (Isabelle Huppert), the wife of his boss Collin (Paul Shenar), after an office party.

Sylvia witnesses an attempted murder on Denise (Elizabeth McGovern) from Terry’s bedroom window, but gets Terry to tell the police. However, he lies to the police to protect her, claiming he was the one at the bedroom window.

Later, at a police line-up, neither he nor Denise can pick out the attacker, Chris Henderson (Brad Greenquist). But Chris is still put on trial for the assault, but his lawyer proves that the short-sighted Terry could not have witnessed the incident.

There ensues a nail-biting, sexy adult thriller that Hitchcock would have been proud of, as the likeable hero Guttenberg finds himself dragged deeper and deeper into a nightmarish labyrinth of deception and murder.

Despite, or maybe because of, all the red herrings, it is entirely engrossing, entertaining and credible, and the Baltimore backdrop is well used. Hanson’s screenplay is based on the novel The Witnesses by Anne Holden.

Also in the cast are Frederick Coffin, Wallace Shawn, Maury Chaykin, Carl Lumbly, Brad Greenquist, Robert Schenkhan, Sara Carlson and Mark Margolis.

It was was shot in the Mount Vernon neighbourhood of Baltimore, Maryland, and in North Carolina at DeLaurentiis’s DEG studios in Wilmington.

It was released on January 16, 1987.

It runs 112 minutes.

The music is composed by Michael Shrieve and Patrick Gleeson, and was released as the soundtrack album on LP in 1986.

The Bedroom Window cinema release poster.

The cast are Steve Guttenberg as Terry Lambert, Elizabeth McGovern as Denise, Isabelle Huppert as Sylvia Wentworth, Paul Shenar as Collin Wentworth, Carl Lumbly as Detective Quirke, Frederick Coffin as Detective Jessup, Brad Greenquist as Chris Henderson, Wallace Shawn as Henderson’s Attorney, Robert Schenkkan as State Attorney Peters, Maury Chaykin as Pool Player, Sara Carlson as Dancing Girl, Mark Margolis as Man in Phone Booth, Jodi Long as Cocktail Waitress, Richard K Olsen as Late Night Shopper, Leon Rippy as Seedy Bartender, and Kate McGregor-Stewart as Blowsy Neighbour.

Curtis Hanson read and liked Anne Holden’s novel The Witness and tried to gain the film rights, but they had been bought 15 years earlier by Paramount Pictures. Hanson did a deal with the studio to write the script, making a few changes to the novel.

Hanson said Elizabeth McGovern was his only choice to play Denise (‘it’s fun to have her play a part where her beauty is secondary’). He decided to cast Isabelle Huppert as Sylvia (‘Being French, she has a veneer of sophistication’). But Steve Guttenberg was a choice of Dino De Laurentiis and Hanson agreed to cast him after they had dinner together (‘I thought the picture should have his enthusiasm and his humour’).

It had a budget of $8.3 million, and took $12,640,385 at the US box office alone, so the movie was successful. Dino De Laurentiis’s idea that he’d have a young person in the lead who is liked and known for comedy was a canny one.

The films of Curtis Hanson include a clutch of fine thrillers: The Bedroom Window (1987), Bad Influence (1990), The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992), The River Wild (1994), and LA Confidential (1997),

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4,387

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Curtis Hanson.

RIP Curtis Hanson (1945– 20 September 2016).

The films of Curtis Hanson: Sweet Kill (1973), The Little Dragons (1980), Losin’ It (1983), The Children of Times Square (1986, TV), The Bedroom Window (1987), Evil Town (1987), Bad Influence (1990), The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992), The River Wild (1994), L.A. Confidential (1997), Wonder Boys (2000), 8 Mile (2002), In Her Shoes (2005), Lucky You (2007), Too Big to Fail (2011, TV), and Chasing Mavericks (2012).