Um Assassino na Noite

Roy Scheider plays a Galveston, Texas police detective trying to catch a serial killer. It seems when a popular Houston Astro pitches a winning night game, a beautiful blonde winds up dead near the beach.

This crime drama also stars Richard Bradford, Paul Gleason, Karen Young, Lane Smith and Rex Linn. This movie quickly becomes predictable, but keeps your interest to the end.

. . . this what the serial killer movie looked like. The plot is leaky to say the least: someone would have picked up on the fact that the murders only occur when the local team plays, and when a certain player scores. The fact that he kills with a hook would get out, and someone would immediately remember a disaffected loner with a hook for a hand. FBI Behavioural Sciences would solve this in a day.

The director seems immensely impressed with the fact he's filming in Texas, far from the gaze of Studio execs, and packs in endless loving aerial vistas. His visual style is stuck in TV Movie Lite, and along with the soundtrack could have originated from anytime since 1972. Only the clothes and hairstyles suggest its 80's dating, and even those seem stuck in a timewarp from 1985 rather than 1989.

Roy Scheider looks embarrassed, Karen Young flashes her breasts in the first 10 minutes. Subplots about Scheider's character's father's links to organised crime and tension with his girlfriend's mother (who he dated in High School) detract from the story and go unresolved. One face to watch out for: the blonde victim in the Hall of Mirrors is played by Renee O'Connor, Xena's sidekick Gabrielle. I only watched the rest of the film because I thought I recognised her face and wanted to check the credits!

Good old fashion serial killer movie! Pleasant not with vulgar language!

The main drawcard is the exciting actor, Roy Scheider. Sadly, he can't carry such a deadweight on his own. The script was absolutely awful and the directing dreadful. The story was slow and the fight scene at the end was like a children's recital. That's not the fault of the actors as I blame that on the director. I like to know who finances these type of films. Too much money and not knowing what to do with it must be the diagnosis. On one interesting note is Karen Young. Does she remind you of Shirley MacLaine or what?

Surfing Tubi in the middle of the night, I originally turned it on mainly for Roy Schneider and Astros baseball. But when the opening credits started, I instantly recognized shots of the causeway, Flagship hotel, east beach and then a house in the east end historical district. I gave up thoughts of going back to sleep and settled in for a watch. Roy Schneider was very good with what he had to work with. Terrible accents, lame script and poor editing. But seeing an intact Balinese Room is worth missed sleep any day. Many locations are gone or don't exist in the same form. My family was in the bar business in the late 30s and war years and my bedtime stories were different, to say the least. Schneider"s character talks about his Dad also being part of this world. My extended family includes descendants of the island famous Johnny Jack Nounes. Anyone from the Gulf Coast or even other parts of Texas should enjoy it just for the scenery.