Top10Films.co.uk Presents Into The Night as it's first Midnight Double Feature

Top10Films.co.uk presents it's first Midnight Double Feature - Martin Scorsese meets John Landis: Click Here

Top10Films.co.uk

For great Top 10 film lists covering traditional topics as well as many diverse themes please take a look at my new site: www.top10films.co.uk

Met Jeff Goldblum...!

...well I never! Recently saw David Mamet's brilliantly scripted play Speed The Plow at London's Old Vic theatre at the beginning of February. Both Jeff Goldblum and Kevin Spacey were fantastic in the play. Afterwards, I managed to catch the actor at the stage door where he had a bit of banter with autograph hunters. He's a genuinely pleasant fellow, very down to earth. I can't recommend Speed The Plow highly enough.

Into The Night trivia...can you name all the cameos?

Eighteen film directors, one make-up artist and one screenwriter have cameos in the film:

* Paul Mazursky co-stars as beachhouse owner and accused drug dealer Bud Herman.
* Roger Vadim also co-stars as Monsieur Melville, the French kidnapper.
* The man on the elevator with the "nice dog" is played by Jack Arnold.
* The top-hatted doorman at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel is Paul Bartel.
* Ed's boardroom supervisor is played by David Cronenberg.
* The aerospace engineer sitting next to Herb (Dan Aykroyd) in the cafeteria is played by Richard Franklin.
* Amy, the clumsy waitress in Ship's Restaurant, is Amy Heckerling.
* Mr. Williams (Carl Perkins) instructs a man to get off of the phone. The man is Jim Henson. Incidentally, the person Henson is talking to is named "Bert", after Henson's muppet.
* The actor playing the terrorist at a beauty concert is Colin Higgins.
* The script clerk on the hostage film is played by Jonathan Kaufer ("Soup for One" (1982)).
* The director of the hostage film, up on the crane, is played by Daniel Petrie.
* The police detective who interrogates Bud Herman at his beachhouse is Lawrence Kasdan.
* The tailor who fits the SAVAK agents is Jonathan Lynn.
* The driver ogling dirty pictures in the traffic jam at the start of the film is Andrew Marton (King Solomon's Mines (1950), The Longest Day (1962)).
* The man caught with a girl in the bathroom of the Beverly Wilshire Hotel is Don Siegel.
* At the end, two Secret Service agents argue with the head agent (Clu Gulager) in Ed's hotel room. The thin one with the glasses is Jonathan Demme and the larger one with the moustache is Carl Gottlieb.
* John Landis himself appears as the mute member of the quartet of Iranian hitmen.

* Other cameos:
* The drug dealer who tries to sell to Ed and Diana in their car is played by Academy-Award-winning make-up artist Rick Baker.
* The hooker who appears just before Baker is played by Michelle Pfeiffer's sister, Dedee Pfeiffer.
* Screenwriter Waldo Salt plays the derelict who tells Ed that his car has been towed away by the cops.
* Landis often casts musicians in his film. In this one, David Bowie fights Carl Perkins to the death.
* Dan Aykroyd, the star of Landis' earlier film The Blues Brothers, plays Ed's co-worker, Herb.
* Bruce McGill, the co-star of Landis' National Lampoon's Animal House plays Diana's Elvis-impersonator brother, Charlie.

Top 10 Horror Movies of the 1980s

Check out Strange Conversation's Top 10 Horror movies of the 1980s. John Landis' An American Werewolf In London is on the list!

Click HERE for Top 10!

Genius....the greatest late night movie ever made

Check out the 80s Movie Rewind for their thoughts on the movie.

Into The Night on Region 1 DVD

It’s a shame Universal haven’t provided a ‘special’ edition of this film on DVD, as the one additional feature, B.B King: ‘Into The Night’ is nice but rather unfulfilling. They have however, provided the film with good sound and excellent picture quality that remains true to the film’s original theatrical exhibition.

The picture is presented in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1, and anamorphic enhanced. Robert Paynter’s photography in Into The Night’s dark exteriors look wonderfully crisp and clear, displaying a lot of detail. Colours are a little faded but true to the rather indistinct, bland cinematography that was used for the film. The print is in notably good condition displaying very little noticeable grain or artefacts.

The soundtrack hasn’t been re-mastered which is unfortunate given its stereo origins, but the Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack does a good enough job. Remaining rather mono throughout, dialogue is clear and music doesn’t drown out speech. Directionality is kept to a minimum but this track is fine for this type of film.

The only additional feature is the W.C Handy Award-Winning documentary ‘B.B King: Into The Night’ which is actually very good. It starts off with a performance of the title song by B.B King which is particularly funny and notable for the backing group that accompanies the singer/songwriter. On drums is Eddie Murphy, on piano Jeff Goldblum, and in the brass section: Dan Aykroyd, Steve Martin and Michelle Pfeiffer – it’s actually quite funny, especially Eddie Murphy’s winks to the camera, and again it seems that Landis has called on his friends to help him out. The documentary proceeds to briefly look at B.B King’s career through an interview with Landis himself, and also looks at how the title song came about and why it was used in the film. There’s some lovely footage of King playing for Landis, as the documentary appears at times to be more a film about Blues music rather than the film itself, but it’s an enjoyable experience. The documentary ends with more footage of King playing with Aykoryd, Goldblum, Martin, Murphy and Pfeiffer. It is approximately 26 minutes long and presented in full-frame 4:3, from what looks like a VHS master.