classicsoncall Review of Still of the Night

Still of the Night (1982)

"I got another twenty says she's not finished yet."

[7/10 · 23 January 2022]

I'll dispense with the Hitchcock references, almost everyone else on this board already does so. I viewed it as a murder mystery, suspense thriller that did an interesting job of teaming Roy Scheider and Meryl Streep in a dubiously convoluted relationship. Scheider's can of Tab made it into the flick a number of times, enough that I thought that it's product placement went just a little overboard. The key to identifying the killer in the story hinged on a dream that the murdered George Bynum (Josef Sommer) related to psychiatrist Sam Rice (Scheider), and from there it becomes an almost too simple matter for Rice and Brooke Reynolds (Streep) to go home as happy campers. Although the manner in which Gail Phillips (Sara Botsford) fell over the balcony railing looked kind of awkward; that could have used a little work. Roy Scheider makes for a dashing leading man, and I've never seen Meryl Streep look as gorgeous. Throw in Jessica Tandy as Sam Rice's psychiatrist Mom, and the puzzle pieces come together without much of a problem.