Amy Lyndon | 80's Movie Guide

Taglines: Will one forbidden night change both their lives forever? A Night in Heaven movie storyline. Faye Hanlon (Lesley Ann Warren) is a community-college professor with an emotionally depressed husband and an abundance of sexual frustration. Her sister drags her to a male strip-club for a girl's night out, where she discovers that one of the dancers is her failing student Rick Monroe, a.k.a. "Ricky the Rocket". A heated affair between teacher and student ensues, as Faye struggles to reconcile her emotions and make consequential life choices: Continue her lustful sessions with the studly-but-shallow teen stripper? Or break it off with Ricky and work to salvage her marriage to the loving-but-distant husband? A Night in Heaven is a 1983 American romance film directed by John G. Avildsen, starring Christopher Atkins as a college student and Lesley Ann Warren as his professor. The film's screenplay was written by Joan Tewkesbury. Film critics widely panned the film. About the Story Outspoken and overconfident Rick Monroe is a jock and a popular guy in college in Titusville, Florida. At the end of his final report for his class, Rick cracks a joke and his prim and proper speech professor, Faye Hanlon, is not amused. After chiding him for his joke, she decides to fail him and make him take the course over again. Faye is going through a slump in her marriage to Whitney Hanlon, a rocket scientist who has just been laid off. Faye's free-spirited sister Patsy, visiting from Chicago, takes her to a strip club to cheer her up. The show features a performer called "Ricky the Rocket", who is none other than Faye's student Rick. When he notices Faye in the crowd, he gives her a very special lap dance, kissing her in the process. The next day, Faye and Rick run into each other at a school function. Initially, Rick is interested only in convincing Faye to allow him another chance at his final and is rebuffed. He realizes that she is attracted to him and begins flirting. Faye arranges to meet Patsy near her hotel, only to discover that she has been tricked into seeing another performance by "Ricky the Rocket". Since Patsy has to return home a day early, she turns over use of her hotel room to Faye, who calls Whitney and lies that she and Patsy are staying at Patsy's hotel together. Coincidentally, Rick's mother works in the same hotel, and while visiting his mother, Rick runs into Faye again; they return to Faye's room and have sex. Faye must leave and in her absence, Rick invites his girlfriend Slick to the room where she has sex with him as well. Faye catches them in the shower and, humiliated, flees; she realizes that she has been deceived. Whitney, returning home from an unsuccessful job interview, discovers that Patsy has gone home. Whitney travels to the hotel, where he catches Rick as the latter is exiting. He kidnaps Rick at gunpoint, takes Rick to a boat at a small dock, and forces him to strip. Rick, sobbing, complies. Whitney threatens Rick repeatedly, but ultimately only shoots holes in the boat, leaving a naked Rick aboard as it sinks. A Night in Heaven (1983) Directed by: John G. Avildsen Starring: Christopher Atkins, Lesley Ann Warren, Robert Logan, Deborah Rush, Deney Terrio, Sandra Beall, Carrie Snodgress, Amy Lyndon, Karen Margaret Cole Screenplay by: Joan Tewkesbury Production Design by: Anna Hill Johnstone Cinematography by: David L. Quaid Film Editing by: John G. Avildsen Costume Design by: Anna Hill Johnstone Music by: Jan Hammer Distributed by: 20th Century Fox Release Date: November 18, 1983