 Tall
and lanky actor Jeff
Goldblum was cast as Ed
Okin, an aerospace engineer in
Los Angeles, who is so fed up with his
life that he can't sleep. Neither can
his wife Ed
sees her having sex with her boss. As
he drives around Los Angeles International
Airport this wonderful woman, this dazzling
Diana appears
on the bonnet of his car: 'Get me out
of here!' she cries, and we're off into
the world of Alfred
Hitchcock. Goldblum's
Ed is the
innocent being pulled into a world of
foreign intrigue and chases.
Diana has
smuggled, 'in a secret place', six priceless
emeralds into California, and she's on
the run. Landis
takes her and audiences into a pastiche
of the wild world of Los Angeles. Iranian
bad guys nibble on caviare, champagne
and bimbos along the Rodeo Drive boutiques
in Beverly Hills. Pfeiffer's
Diana fits
in perfectly in the hip world. The red
Napa calf jacket she wears throughout
most of the film is the third leather
jacket created for the screen by designer
Deborah Nadoolman.
She designed Indiana
Jones's aviator's jacket for Raiders
of the Lost Ark and Michael
Jackson's red and black jacket
for his video Michael
Jackson's Thriller and then something
a little cuter but cool for dashing Diana.
 Diana's
brother actor Bruce
McGill from Pfeiffer's
TV series Delta
House, which was derived from the
Landis directed
Animal House
is an Elvis impersonator. Rocker David
Bowie plays a terribly British
hit man, and Paul
Mazursky is one of seventeen film
directors who make cameo appearances.
Mazursky
as a television producer asks his girlfriend,
played by Kathryn
Harrold, to get involved in deviant
sex with him explaining, 'Oblige me, I'm
gonna put this on video.' The film is
cool and hip and stuffed with in jokes
and visual references for film buffs.
It didn't do great business but has become
a cult film on the video circuit. For
Pfeiffer
it was a landmark.
 'Trim,
smart and drop dead gorgeous, Pfeiffer
has been nibbling at stardom since her
stints in Grease
2 and Scarface.
Now, by animating this sparkling thriller
satire with her seen it all elegance,
she has every right to feast on it,'
wrote Richard Corliss
of Time magazine
when Into
the Night went into cinemas in
1985.
Greek actress Irene
Papas who plays an Iranian wheelerdealer
in the film said she was always conscious
of the tension in Landis,
his concern over the Twilight
Zone case. So were all the rest
of the cast and crew because most days
some movement in the proceedings would
be recorded by the Los
Angeles Times. Landis
did his best to remain embroiled in his
work. One hot night of filming he turned
up for work in his underwear. When he
wanted to get the proper look of shock
on Jeff Goldblum's
face for a particular scene, he had a
crew member shoot off a prop gun behind
the actor's head.
 Pfeiffer
he fed. In Scarface
she had maintained the appropriate emaciated
cocaine freak look, which was enhanced
by white face and all over the body make
up. Although he was making Into
the Night the director didn't want
any vampire style look.
'I always start
a film at the same weight, but once I
get into it I sometimes forget about eating,'
says Pfeiffer
who said of Landis,
'He was always shoving
bagels and cream cheese at me and saying:
"Here, eat!!!"'
Landis found
a part in his film for Pfeiffer's
sister Dee Dee
who played a hooker. It's clear he and
Michelle Pfeiffer
became close friends: 'He's
totally straightforward, and I like that
a lot. You know where you stand with someone
like John. One day he said, "I feel
so lucky to have you in my movie."
That made me feel great.'
|
Spain.
