Peligro en la noche

I saw this movie when I was younger and for some reason it always stuck with me. I'll always remember the music (the title song as well as the classical pieces used throughout), the vestibule of Mimi Roger's apartment palace, the scene of Tom Berenger having breakfast with his family, Lorraine Bracco's fiery performance as his wife, and the haunting opening aerial shots of NYC lit up at night. I watched it again for the first time in probably nine or ten years and it was like visiting with an old friend or curling up with a good book you had read before. You knew the story, but it was all fascinatingly interesting. The plot here is pretty basic: working class cop has to babysit upper class babe who witnesses heinous murder. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out how it all ends, but director Ridley Scott somehow manages to keep it compelling thanks to some great direction and wonderful performances from the cast. Somewhere I saw this billed as an erotic thriller, which is way off base. Scott keeps everything here extremely classy. It's more of a romantic thriller and throwback to the noir films of the 1940's. This may not be the best film you'll ever see, but it's one of the better thrillers of the 1980's, and a worthy testament to Ridley Scott's versatility as a director. It's also nice to see Jerry Orbach in a supporting role that probably paved the way for his part in the never ending "Law and Order" TV series.