Still of the Night

Still of the Night is a 1982 American neo-noir psychological thriller film directed by Robert Benton and starring Roy Scheider, Meryl Streep, Joe Grifasi, and Jessica Tandy. It was written by Benton and David Newman. Scheider plays a psychiatrist who falls in love with a woman (Streep) who may be the psychopathic killer of one of his patients. The film is considered as an overt homage to the films of Alfred Hitchcock, emulating scenes from many of his movies: a bird attacks one character (as in The Birds), a scene takes place in an auction (as in North by Northwest), someone falls from a height (as in Vertigo and a number of other films), stuffed birds occupy a room (as in Psycho), and an important plot point is the interpretation of a dream (as in Spellbound). Meryl Streep's hair is styled much like Eva Marie Saint's was in North by Northwest, and the town of Glen Cove features in both films. Jessica Tandy also features both in this film, and in The Birds (1963) as the mother of the protagonist. Plot Manhattan psychiatrist Dr. Sam Rice is visited by glamorous, enigmatic Brooke Reynolds, who works at Crispin's (a fictitious New York auction house modeled after Christie's). Brooke was having an affair with one of Rice's patients, George Bynum, who has just been murdered. Brooke asks the doctor to return a watch to Bynum's wife and not reveal the affair.