The Bedroom Window

Even though director Curtis Hanson has tackled all kinds of genre's, he always seemed most comfortable making thrillers. This makes sense since most of his biggest hits were thrillers. Not so was the case however with his first big Hollywood suspense film, the very Hitchcockian 1987 movie The Bedroom Window.

Steve Guttenberg stars as Terry, an office worker who is having an affair with the bosses wife Sylvia, Isabelle Huppert. After one of their tryst's, Sylvia witnesses an attempted murder from Terry's bedroom window. Terry, who didn't witness any of this, tell's the cops that he did so that Sylvia's husband wouldn't know that she was there. But when Terry's statement just doesn't add up, the police begin to suspect him. To clear his name, Terry, with the help of the killer's last target Denise, Elizabeth McGovern, set out to catch the murderer.

This is actually a pretty smart thrill ride. I think the main problem might have been the casting of Guttenberg. At this time he was best known for comedies like Police Academy. He probably jumped at the opportunity to star in this to show that he was more than a funny man. He's not horrible in it, but I can think of a lot of other actor's who would have fit the bill better. This was the intention of producer Dino De Laurentiis. He told Guttenberg that he hired him because people wouldn't except to see him in a role like this. That thinking kind of backfired.

Overall though, The Bedroom Window is a pretty tight thriller.

It's available on dvd.