MIDNIGHT CROSSING
US, 1987, 104 minutes, Colour.
Faye Dunaway, Daniel J.Travanti, Kim Cattrall, Ned Beatty.
Directed by Roger Holzberg.
Midnight Crossing is a rather routine thriller, set on a boat on the high seas. Daniel J. Travanti (Hill Street Blues) has a chance to be a most obnoxious villain. Faye Dunaway is his blind wife - and has a variation on Wait Until Dark. John Lachlan and Kim Cattrall are the young couple who own the boat and are persuaded to go on a venture to recover buried cash on an island off Cuba. Ned Beatty, sporting a British Commonwealth accent, is after the money as well.
The film has a prologue with the burying of the money from casinos at the time of Castro's takeover. However, the film is rather slow-moving and then builds to a climax with violent confrontations - with a touch of the unbelievably happy ending.
1.Interesting action thriller? Greed? Betrayal? Violence?
2.The Caribbean settings, the seas? Action sequences? Musical score?
3.The title, the focus on the sea, the voyage?
4.Helen and Morley: their marriage, seemingly happy, her blindness getting worse, his retirement from the navy? Their hosting Jeffrey and Alexa? The discussion at the meal, the proposal about the boat, the treasure? Morley and his relationship with Alexa, the betrayal? Alexa and her persuasiveness with her husband? The evening drinking in the restaurant, Ellis overhearing, his story? The voyage, Helen getting used to the boat, adjusting to her blindness? Morley and his being obnoxious? Helen revealing the truth about the murder of Jeffrey's father? The arrival at the island? The map, the greed? The arrival of Ellis, the fight and the explosion? The clash with Morley and Jeffrey? Jeffrey seemingly dead? The fight, Alexa being knocked off the boat? Helen confronting Morley, shooting him, his death? Her fear when the boat was picked up, her story? Jeffrey alive? The aftermath and her sailing to Corfu with Jeffrey?
5.Jeffrey and the boat, on the mast, Alexa taunting him? Their relationship? The boat, paying it off? The memory of his dead father and his suicide? The love between the two - and the irony of Alexa's betrayal? The dinner, his reluctance to go on the voyage, being persuaded? The voyage, confrontations with Morley, the fight? Helen telling him the truth about his father's death? His sudden reappearance, the confrontation with Morley? Recovery, happy ending?
6.Ellis, his presence in the seedy bar, his story about the sharks? Arrival with the Cubans? The explosion?
7.Action sequences, psychological confrontations? A story of greed and betrayal?
