NIGHT SHIFT
US, 1982, 110 minutes, Colour.
Michael Keaton, Henry Winkler, Shelley Long.
Directed by Ron Howard.
Night Shift is an offbeat zany comedy. It features Henry Winkler in an excellent comic role, a blend of Woody Allen and The Fonz. Winkler is directed by his Happy Days co-star Ron Howard who had previously made the action thriller Grand Theft Auto. They are joined by madcap comedian Michael Keaton who almost steals the show from Winkler. Shelley Long is an attractive heroine.
The film is about New York paranoia, the streets, criminals, prostitution as well as about Jewish families and the ordinary little man trying to survive. Henry Winkler is in the tradition of Chaplin and Woody Allen and other New York comedy. The setting is a New York morgue which eventually becomes an agency for prostitutes, in order to protect them from pimps. There is a lot of verbal and visual humour, all done in very good taste! The film might be compared with others of the period e.g. The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and the English The Missionary. The film is glossy and entertaining with music by Burt Bacharach and song lyrics by Carol Bayer Sager.
1. The comedy appeal of the film? Its capacity to make the audience laugh? The range of characters, oddball situations, moralising themes? The contrasting comic styles of Henry Winkler and Michael Keaton? The film as a piece of New York Americana?
2. The importance of the New York city setting? The credits sequences and the atmosphere of New York at night? The apartments, the streets, racial tensions, vice, death and violence? The police. the morgue? The background of the New York apartments and streets? The contribution of the score and the bright songs, especially the opening 'Night Shift' and the final song? The atmosphere of American comedy?
3. The importance of the prologue and its introduction of action and themes? The night, the prostitutes, the pimps, the chase, violence and death ? with the ironic touch with the youngsters playing basketball and the victim coming through the basket? The importance of this prologue for the later episodes of pimps and violence?
4. The contrast with the morgue? The crudity of the police interviewing Belinda? Chuck treating Belinda as a lady? The introduction to Chuck and Henry Winkler's style? The meek Jewish New Yorker in the Woody Allen tradition? Quiet and neat, his relationship with Charlotte and her preoccupation with diet and his forgiving her for her eating chocolates etc.? His being pushed around e.g. the crowded subway stairs, being chased by the dog in the corridor, not getting the sandwiches he wanted? His not answering back? The picture of the meek American male dominated by girlfriend and mother? The significance of his memories of his father and his relationship with his mother, his using the money for his father's tombstone and the visit to the cemetery?
5. His ordered way of life, desk, timetable? His being pushed around to take the night shift with the slovenly nephew of the owner taking his place and leaving his to clean up? The build-up to the arrival of Bill with his singing Rolling Stones songs and his dramatic stage entrance? Bill and his incessant talking, offhand, rude comments e.g. about the frame of Charlotte's photo? The importance of his ideas and his talking them onto tape, paper garbage, tuna sandwiches etc.? His taking over the morgue, his limousine service and the awkward young man who came to be taken to the party? His incessant talking and Chuck's reaction, not saying anything, eventually breaking out and telling him to shut up? Bill's reaction by going into the cup board with the tape saying 'shut up'? The building of bonds between the two, Chuck revealing something of himself? Bill's goals about making a man out of Chuck, with the ironic consequences? Their work as partners?
6. The introduction to Belinda at the morgue, her work as a prostitute, Chuck treating her as a lady? The next encounter with the noisy cowboy in the apartment? Charlotte's reaction? Chuck finding her beaten up in the elevator? Going to her apartment, her reaction to him and his questions about her profession, her apology for being rude? The breakfast sequence and Chuck's embarrassment and attraction? Her freedom of movement? Charlotte's phone call in the middle of this? The bashing and her explanation about the death of the pimp and the need for a pimp? Her support for Chuck in his speaking to the girls, her work, her pleasantness, the importance of the buying of the burger parlour, the party for Chuck, the visit to the cemetery and his father's grave, their falling in love, the bath sequence? Chuck's expectations of the follow-up and his disillusionment with her? His not saying that he loved her, his not knowing that she wouldn't go to the client? Her attitude towards him as decent? His being hurt, her new job and his decision to rescue her? How plausible the character of Belinda? How attractive a character?
7. The girls and their work, the forming of a union, listening to Bill's theories and not understanding, listening to Chuck and his financial understanding, progress, the collage of them at work and all their contacts, phone calls etc.? Their response to his buying the hamburger parlour? The party? Their getting Chuck and Bill out of jail? The points being made about prostitutes and Bill's explanation of the man not raping the girl because of the availability of prostitutes? The moralising about prostitution?
8. Chuck and the change in his experience, the influence of Bill, of Belinda? Thanksgiving and the arrival of Charlotte's parents and his mother? The phone calls, the court appearance and reaction of Charlotte's parents? His skill in organisation, saving his money and the collage of the progress? The contrast with Bill spending his money and getting more clothes and the bigger car? Chuck's reaction to Bill's driving? Chuck's illness? The party, his throwing the party-goers out of the morgue? His encounter with the criminals. his almost being killed, the arrest and the jail? The homosexual in the cell? Charlotte spitting at him? The lawyer and his physically fighting Bill? His returning to normal?
9. Bill and his type, his explanation of his family, loud, gambling, rationalising everything, his exuberance, the limousine service he was running, his enjoying his work as a pimp, the car and the police? The picking up the police and their presence at the shoot-out? Jail, going to tennis, his hurt at Chuck's attack? His becoming a towel boy in the club and his wanting to rescue Belinda?
10. The climax in the club, the rescue of Belinda, the importance of Chuck's challenging the man with the sandwich and sending him back, his reaction against the dogs, his fighting for Belinda, the happy ending?
11. The theme of ordinary people, the oddball situations, the morgue and the corpses, the ironic and critical scenes of the parties and sex in the morgue? The point about sex clubs? Sick society or not?
12. The prostitutes, fact of prostitution, their exploitation, options, the discussion about the sex film and the rape, organisation, sex clubs, the girls themselves, the money, security? The discussion about Jane Fonda's scene in Klute and her faking her response to the man while looking at her watch?
13. Chuck's mother and the irony of the pushy Jewish mother? The prim nature of Charlotte's parents and their experience in the court? Standards and hypocrisy?
14. The funny one liners, the comic situations and their exploitation, pathos, humour and compassion?
