The Bedroom Window

The pairing of Steve Guttenberg and Isabelle Huppert as illicit lovers in The Bedroom Window (1987) should warn first-time viewers that a plot twist is soon forthcoming. Directed by Curtis Hanson (Bad Influence, L.A. Confidential), Huppert is the wealthy and otherworldly Sylvia Wentworth—aka the boss’s wife—who goes home with the hapless everyman Guttenberg following a work party. Huppert, witnessing the attempted rape of a girl through Guttenberg’s bedroom window, is hesitant to call the police as she, of course, would not be able to explain the her presence in his apartment without revealing her liaison dangereuse (with the Brooklyn-born star of Diner, Police Academy, and Bad Medicine no less). When Guttenberg calls the police to report the crime himself, he soon becomes the focus of both the police investigation and the attack victim played by Elizabeth McGovern (Once Upon A Time in America). Though its billing as a “romantic thriller in the tradition of the master of suspense” was a bit of a stretch, The Bedroom Window should nonetheless please fans of Huppert as it marks one of her very few American films, along with Michael Cimino's brilliant Heaven's Gate (1980), a turn-of-the-century historical epic starring Kris Kristofferson and Christopher Walken. The Bedroom Window features several 80s-style chase scenes and was filmed by Gilbert Taylor, the director of photography of The Omen (1976) and Star Wars (1977). Look for Wallace Shawn in a scene-stealing performance as defense attorney for the lead suspect in the attack.