(Cheesy) Movies That I Love....Part 4

A Night in Heaven

Starring:  Christopher Atkins and Lesley Ann Warren

This 1983 movie is just plain, old bad. But what it had going for it was Christopher Atkins as Rick Monroe aka Ricky the Rocket, male dancer/stripper extraordinaire.  I’m sure the producers thought this movie was pure genius. Atkins, riding the wave of the hit Blue Lagoon albeit sans curls, was the teen idol du jour.  So it was understandable why Lesley Ann Warren's character Faye Hanlon, was so easily tempted.

  

The plot goes like this. Faye was a college professor, with something lacking in her marriage to her husband Whitney (Robert Logan).  Ricky was one of her students, but wasn't exactly the sharpest tool in the shed.  So one night her sister and friends took Faye to a male revue ala Chippendales, where she was stunned to find Ricky as one of the dancers.  Basically, he was Magic Mike when Channing Tatum was still just a toddler.  But I digress.

Ricky, who is failing Faye's class, was a tad smarter than we gave him credit for.  When he spotted his professor in the audience, he decided to take full advantage of his 'charms' and seduced her.  With the excellent and perfect (for the scene) song Obsession by Animotion playing in the background, the whole seduction was Faye's undoing.  Obviously frustrated from her husband's non-attentiveness, she lapped up all that Ricky was offering. And boy did she ever.

You knew it wasn't going to take long for the two of them to take their "thing" at the club to another level. And needless to say, once they go into full blown affair mode, she's a hot mess. All she could think about was Ricky, as her marriage went further into the toilet. And you just knew the husband was gonna find out and that Faye was gonna end up screwed over (no pun intended) by Ricky.  Of course, that is exactly what happened.  

One day, Faye went looking for Ricky, because she couldn't get enough of the young stud.  But what she got instead was a HUGE reality check.  She caught him showering with the town skank, who was aptly named, Slick  (Sandra Beall).  Of course that devastated Faye and his dalliance in the shower, brought the student/teacher affair to an abrupt end. 

But the movie wasn't over just yet.  Whitney (the hubby) figured out what was going on and threatened Ricky with a gun.  But he had no intention on killing him or even shooting him for that matter.  He just wanted to humiliate Ricky, by making him squirm, naked on a boat.  Not sure I understood the whole naked part, but I kind of think the director just wanted one more scene of a nude Atkins.  Who knows.

Whitney then headed home to join Faye at their kitchen table and drink Scotch.  The end.

The love song, Heaven by Bryan Adams, played during the opening credits.

This movie bombed and I do not own it on DVD.  I did however, catch it on cable a month or so ago and watched it again. What can I say, it’s definitely a guilty pleasure.

- Heather