Meurtres en nocturne

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.

Roy Scheider plays Mike Seaver, a Texas police detective (and former ballplayer) who picks up the trail of a serial killer in this very pedestrian thriller. The hook here is that the killers' attacks are tied in to night games at the Houston Astrodome. Roy's impending marriage to the much younger Roxy (Karen Young) forms a subplot, as does Roy's vendetta against a fellow detective, Broussard (Paul Gleason) whom he believes to be corrupt.

A rock solid cast does the best that it can with this routine script by Spencer Eastman and Anthony Palmer. (Palmer also plays the supporting role of Mendoza.) Peter Masterson is a good director, and the movie isn't incompetently made, but it's of no real distinction. It's pretty predictable, although it might hold the attention of some viewers because of its brutal murders, location filming, and fine performances. It's gorgeously shot by Fred Murphy, and the score by Pino Donaggio is okay but it's definitely not as memorable as the scores he composed for features such as "Carrie", "Piranha", "Dressed to Kill", and "The Howling". Pacing is mostly decent, but the movie is just not that exciting, even in its final act when Seaver realizes who the killer is and races to prevent them from committing another murder.

Scheider is fine as always in the lead, even if he doesn't have great material to work with here. Young is radiant and appealing as his love interest. Gleason is amusing in one of his typical jerk roles, and Richard Bradford glowers and rants adequately as Scheiders' commanding officer. Lane Smith is rather wasted as a government man named Witty. Carlin Glynn (Mastersons' wife) plays Scheiders' domineering future mother-in-law; Rex Linn of 'CSI: Miami' makes one of his earliest feature film appearances.

This is watchable enough but completely forgettable once it's over.

Five out of 10.

Mike Seaver (Roy Scheider) is a hard bitten detective in Galveston, Texas with a chequered past regarding authority. He likes baseball, he used to play minor league and his father worked for the mob.

When mainly blonde prostitutes start to get killed. Seaver is on the case, but his various departmental heads are not happy.

His mother in law to be is also not happy, Seaver is due to marry Roxy Bennett (Karen Young) who is half his age.

Under pressure to make a breakthrough, Seaver finds a link between each murder and the Houston Astros winning.

Peter Masterson the director was inept when it came to action movies. Night Game is a hybrid police thriller with the slasher genre.

It is all over the place, at times badly acted and written.

The finale has to be been seen for its awfulness. It is no surprise that Roxy would eventually be targeted by the killer. When she is chased by a man with a hook, she runs into the kitchen of a restaurant and not once asks for assistance.

After all, a restaurant kitchen will have chefs with knives who could had come to her aid.

Even when Seaver confronts the killer, members of the public just stand and watch. It seems no one in Texas carries a firearm!

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.

Thanks to brilliant genre classics, such as "Jaws", "The French Connection" and "Sorcerer", Roy Scheider is one of my - admittedly many - cinematic heroes, but it's nevertheless quite difficult to take him seriously here in this film. Roy depicts a police detective in a coastal Texan town, who asked the daughter of his high-school sweetheart to marry him (!), and meanwhile he tries to solve the case of a serial killer who slays beautiful blond women with a hook. His modus operandi also seems to be linked to the calendar of the local baseball team. Neither the plot nor any of the characters are very plausible, but luckily there are other things to enjoy in "Night Game". There's a lot of misplaced humor, for instance one of the deputies gets sick upon the discovery of a new body whereas another one orders pizza to the place of a crime scene. The killer cuts the throats of victims with a hook; hence the murders are reasonably gory and sadist, and the stalking that he does before killing them results in a couple of suspenseful moments, notably at the mirror-palace at the carnal or on the construction site near the beach. Scheiders' quarrels with his future mother-in-law are often funny, and there are pointless supportive roles for familiar faces like Lane Smith and Paul Glaser.