Night Shift
Hollywood comedies in the early 1980s went through a brief period where several of the yukfests coming off the assembly line were apparently making it a point to glamorize (or at least romanticize) the profession of prostitution (a.k.a. human trafficking) by portraying it in a somewhat positive light while stopping just this much short from condoning it. The best of the bunch was undoubtedly 1983âs Doctor Detroit (although some might prefer the aggressively overrated Risky Business from the same year) featuring Dan Aykroyd as a nice guy college professor adopting an alter ego as a Detroit superpimp with the ulterior motive of actually rescuing a number of girls from being doomed to live that lifestyle forever. This particular release from 1982 falls right about in the middle, the first major Hollywood directing gig for one Ron Howard as well as the first big starring role in a movie for Michael Keaton. The premise is one that would light up any pitch meeting with its brevity: Two bored city morgue workers on the overnight graveyard shift decide to pool their knowledge, resources and facilities at hand to create and run a massive prostitution ring using the morgue as their main base of operations. Certainly as a goofy sex comedy, this has all the potential in the world (and a modern day update on the same basic story probably wouldnât be such a bad thing either). For his lead actor, Howard would enlist his legendary Happy Days co star Arthur âThe Fonzâ Fonzarelli (billed here under his real name, Henry Winkler) as the veteran morgue attendant whose life (or at least his schedule) is turned upside down when he is demoted to the night shift by his boss to make room for his nephew coming in to work the daytime hours. Winklerâs history as a movie star certainly pales in comparison to his godlike TV icon status, but he was said to have knowingly and purposefully taken on roles that were the polar opposite of The Fonz in a desperate attempt to show his range and this is certainly no exception. His Chuck as seen at the beginning of the film practically sleepwalks through this job which he hates all while avoiding confrontation everywhere he goes, including having an attractive fiancĂ©e who canât stop complaining about her weight, a food delivery service that always gets his order wrong but yet he never makes a fuss and most bizarrely, a giant Rottweiller dog that always seems to come out of nowhere whenever he steps outside his apartment and chase him down. When he gets busted down to night shift, heâs also told that heâs responsible for breaking in a new co worker, and thatâs where Keaton comes into the mix. Coming off his own extensive TV career and some stand up comedy work, Keaton comes into this film ad libbing up a storm and trying almost any little bit he can think of to get a smile or a chuckle from Winklerâs dour countenance (not to mention the viewer) and while some of it is (very) hit or miss, itâs easy to appreciate the character concept of a 30 year old grown man with the mentality of a 13 year old boy working around dead bodies and prostitutes. Keaton appears to have had no experience in his chosen field, preferring instead to go out into the city to pick up and transport the corpses back to the facility where Winkler handles the paperwork and then he hits upon the idea of starting up the escort service (since it appears that there is no supervisor who is even willing to come in and do at least a surprise inspection) when a local pimp is killed and the girls under his employ (led by Shelley Long who also happens to be Winklerâs neighbor in his apartment building) upon identifying his body bemoan the fact that now there will be a mad scramble amongst all the other pimps (some of whom are not so nice) to grab them up and put them to work in possibly even worse conditions than before. So Winkler (a genuine nice guy who doesnât want to see these girls suffer) and Keaton (who is absolutely in love with his own idea like a kid at Christmas) pick up the reins and even do things one better than before, offering to take less of their money while also giving them medical, dental and an ironclad 401K plan (hence making them feel more respectable). Meanwhile, Winkler and Long start growing ever closer (which is amusing since Winkler in real life admitted to NOT liking her, a sentiment reportedly shared by her co stars on Cheers) which in turn challenges his own fidelity to his fiancĂ©e while Keaton goofily does everything he can to steal every scene heâs in even though Winkler as the star obviously has more screentime. A big problem lies in the inconsistency of the writing, most notably in the case of Winklerâs character: he is adamantly opposed at first to the very notion of getting involved in prostitution, only relenting after getting bombarded by his future in laws along with his own mother by a series of constant nagging remarks, put downs and meanspiritedness. Then after we get a montage of the operation at work and the two business partners making money, Winkler (out of nowhere) suddenly gets another crisis of conscience about what theyâre doing here, giving Keaton a hard time and telling him that they need to shut this whole thing down, again only relenting after finally making a romantic connection with Long. The film seems to leave some interesting plot threads mostly untouched and / or underdeveloped (who was it that the two thugs who had killed the original pimp were working for? How is it that the fiancĂ©e character literally gets shuffled out of the movie and is barely referred to ever again?) going mostly for the goofy humor via Keaton with Winkler as his easily exasperated straight man. And on that note the film works just fine, although Keaton fans should take note that this comic performance of his is far tamer and more toned down compared to something like Beetlejuice, with him doing the whole wild and crazy nonconformist routine to a tee, but also getting the chance to do a bit of actual acting here and there, too. The primary goal for the viewer though is to show how the events of the story (and Keatonâs influence) ultimately compel Winkler to be able to stand up for himself more and be an assertive man, with the story not quite ending where you think itâs going to and then taking a left hand turn to set up a finale in a more unexpected environment, but we do get some pretty good actors throughout the film doing one shot cameos that are fun to see. Michael Keatonâs charisma in many ways rules the day here, but Winkler as his put upon straight man is not to be underestimated even as the script itself is what fails to live up to its full potentialâŠ
7/10