Night Game (film)
Encyclopedia
Night Game is a 1989 crime drama filmed in Galveston and Houston, Texas
. It stars Roy Scheider
as a detective that must solve a series of murders. Released on September 15, 1989 by Epic Productions, the film was written by Spencer Eastman and directed by Peter Masterson
.
ace pitcher Silvio Baretto (an amalgamation
of real-life pitchers Bob Knepper
and Juan Agosto
) pitches and wins a night game at the Astrodome. Additionally, each victim had their throats slashed by some sort of knife or hook.
Scheider plays former minor league baseball player turned Galveston homicide detective Mike Seaver who is engaged to a lady with an accent that repeatedly changes from southern to non-southern throughout the film. Her name is Roxy. Seaver is a staunch Astros
fan and is the only person on the case that begins to realize the coincidence of the deaths coming after Sil Barretto's night game wins in the Dome.
After 95 minutes of sleuthing, Seaver ultimately realizes that the murderer is a disgruntled former Astros pitcher named Floyd Epps. Epps had lost his pitching hand in a minor league
bus accident and now wears a hook. He personally, if illogically, blames Sil Baretto for his misfortune and decides that his murders on the same night as Baretto's wins will steal the headlines from his former teammate.
The penultimate scene features Seaver shooting and killing Epps at a Galveston beach front restaurant
. Epps had been attempting to murder Seaver's fiancee, Roxy, but his swings of his hook prove to be as wild as his mental state, and he fails. The final scene of the film features Sil Barretto walking off the mound before the start of a game in the Astrodome to lead the entire stadium in a standing ovation for the newly married Seaver and Roxy who are standing behind the dugout.
and the tortured Broadway director in All That Jazz
. In fact, it seems to have hit bottom in Night Game." The review further stated, "It's hard to see what could have been done to liven up Night Game, short of having someone run into the Galveston Police Department yelling "Shark!" Too bad no one does."
"Glenn Davis has proven repeatedly that he has a flair for the dramatic. With his consistent game-winning RBIs, one might say he almost performs on cue. And in August, he will prove it again, not only to Astros fans, but across America, when he belts a homer in the upcoming movie, Night Game. Parts of the movie were filmed in the Astrodome last year and director Peter Masterson says Davis proved to be the man he needed for a tricky plot twist. "We needed an Astro to hit a home run and Davis was the one that hit it, so he got in the movie," laughed Masterson in a call from his New York home."
"Night Game" was the first movie in years to be filmed in the Astrodome, joining "Brewster McCloud
", a peculiar 1971 Robert Altman
film largely shot in the stadium, "The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training
", and "Murder at the World Series", an ABC-TV movie of the week that featured the Astros in a World Series before they had even won a division championship. This newest movie is also a murder mystery. Roy Scheider plays a Galveston detective who is cheering for the Astros in the midst of a tight pennant race. But one problem, he is assigned to track down a serial killer. And Scheider is discovering that the murders take place on the same night that Houston wins games.
"Night Game" was originally scripted to be set in San Francisco, but Masterson, a Houston native, who has also made "The Trip to Bountiful
" and wrote "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas
", decided to bring the movie to Texas. "It seemed more interesting to bring it to Houston. A lot of movies are made in San Francisco and not as many in Houston or Galveston," the director said. "I think it worked out better; it's a different kind of locale. Critical to the move though was the availability of the Dome, he said. Filming during the games was limited to capturing crowd reaction, wide-angle shots of the teams and the occasional player at bat. Dodgers outfielder Mike Marshall was, like Davis, expected to hit a homer, Masterson said. But the director found that dingers in the Dome aren't all that common. "We tried our best, but he didn't cooperate," Masterson smiled, admitting that he had to resort to footage of a Marshall single and "we cut real quick after the crack of the bat to crowd shots."
Much more Dome footage will involve players no one is familiar with though. Masterson said former Astro Norm Miller, now a team executive, arranged for squads of amateur players to imitate the pros. "After games ended, we got the field. We simulated some on-the-field stuff and got the close ups we needed," Masterson recalled. "We worked until dawn every night. As soon as it got too light, we'd have to quit. In addition to present and past Astro stars, Houstonians will also recognize one more local figure in the movie. Bob Allen, the sports director at KTRK-TV Channel 13 plays the Astros' play-by-play broadcaster. Masterson said the anchorman "did a really good job."
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
. It stars Roy Scheider
Roy Scheider
Roy Richard Scheider was an American actor. He was best known for his leading role as police chief Martin C...
as a detective that must solve a series of murders. Released on September 15, 1989 by Epic Productions, the film was written by Spencer Eastman and directed by Peter Masterson
Peter Masterson
Peter Masterson is an American actor, director, producer and writer.Masterson often worked with his cousin, writer Horton Foote. Acting from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s,including 1975's The Stepford Wives as Walter Eberhart, since then he has concentrated mostly on directing and producing...
.
Plot
A number of young women are found dead on or around the beaches of Galveston and the one thing they all have in common is that they were murdered when Houston AstrosHouston Astros
The Houston Astros are a Major League Baseball team located in Houston, Texas. They are a member of the National League Central division. The Astros are expected to join the American League West division in 2013. Since , they have played their home games at Minute Maid Park, known as Enron Field...
ace pitcher Silvio Baretto (an amalgamation
Amalgamation (fiction)
Amalgamation or amalgam, when used to refer to a fictional character or place, refers to one that was created by combining, or is perceived to be a combination, of several other previously existing characters or locations...
of real-life pitchers Bob Knepper
Bob Knepper
Robert Wesley Knepper is a former pitcher in Major League Baseball with a 15-year career from 1976 to 1990. He played for the San Francisco Giants and Houston Astros, both of the National League....
and Juan Agosto
Juan Agosto
Juan Roberto Agosto Gonzalez is a former Major League Baseball relief pitcher for the Chicago White Sox, Minnesota Twins, Houston Astros, St. Louis Cardinals and the Seattle Mariners.-Professional career:...
) pitches and wins a night game at the Astrodome. Additionally, each victim had their throats slashed by some sort of knife or hook.
Scheider plays former minor league baseball player turned Galveston homicide detective Mike Seaver who is engaged to a lady with an accent that repeatedly changes from southern to non-southern throughout the film. Her name is Roxy. Seaver is a staunch Astros
Astros
Astros in sports may refer to:*The Houston Astros, a Major League Baseball team*Astros , an American football team in Australia*Astros Field, now renamed Minute Maid ParkAstros may also refer to:...
fan and is the only person on the case that begins to realize the coincidence of the deaths coming after Sil Barretto's night game wins in the Dome.
After 95 minutes of sleuthing, Seaver ultimately realizes that the murderer is a disgruntled former Astros pitcher named Floyd Epps. Epps had lost his pitching hand in a minor league
Minor league
Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities. This term is used in North America with regard to several organizations competing in...
bus accident and now wears a hook. He personally, if illogically, blames Sil Baretto for his misfortune and decides that his murders on the same night as Baretto's wins will steal the headlines from his former teammate.
The penultimate scene features Seaver shooting and killing Epps at a Galveston beach front restaurant
Balinese Room
The Balinese Room was a well-known nightclub in Galveston, Texas, United States built on a pier stretching 600 feet from the Galveston Seawall over the waters of the Gulf of Mexico...
. Epps had been attempting to murder Seaver's fiancee, Roxy, but his swings of his hook prove to be as wild as his mental state, and he fails. The final scene of the film features Sil Barretto walking off the mound before the start of a game in the Astrodome to lead the entire stadium in a standing ovation for the newly married Seaver and Roxy who are standing behind the dugout.
Cast
- Roy Scheider.....Mike Seaver
- Karen YoungKaren Young (actress)Karen Young is an American actress.Born in Pequannock Township, New Jersey, Young studied at Rutgers University. After graduation she moved to New York City and became an actress, appearing in such films as 9½ Weeks, Jaws: The Revenge, Daylight, Mercy and Hoffa. Her ex-husband is Tom Noonan...
.....Roxy - Richard BradfordRichard Bradford (actor)Richard Bradford is an American actor, known for his lead role as former CIA agent turned private eye McGill in the British TV adventure series Man in a Suitcase, made by ITC in 1967....
.....Nelson - Matt Carlson.....Diddee
- Michelle Cochran.....Cindy Baretto
- Alex Garcia.....Sil Baretto
- Paul GleasonPaul GleasonPaul Xavier Gleason was an American film and television actor, known for his roles on TV series such as All My Children and films such as The Breakfast Club, Trading Places and Die Hard.-Early life:...
.....Broussard - Carlin Glynn.....Alma
- Rex LinnRex LinnRex Maynard Linn is an American film and television actor. He is best known for his role as Frank Tripp in the television series CSI: Miami.-Early life:...
.....Epps - Alex Morris.....Gries
- Anthony Palmer.....Mendoza
- Lane SmithLane SmithWalter Lane Smith III was an American actor. Some of his well known roles included portraying collaborator entrepreneur Nathan Bates in the NBC television series V, Mayor Bates in the film Red Dawn, newspaper editor Perry White in the ABC series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman,...
.....Witty
Critical reception
Upon its release, Night Game was neither a critical nor a box office success. The New York Times review of the movie on September 16, 1989 read, "Maybe Roy Scheider should go back to chasing sharks. His career has taken a long, slow dive from his days as the harassed police chief in JawsJaws (film)
Jaws is a 1975 American horror-thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Peter Benchley's novel of the same name. In the story, the police chief of Amity Island, a fictional summer resort town, tries to protect beachgoers from a giant man-eating great white shark by closing the beach,...
and the tortured Broadway director in All That Jazz
All That Jazz
All That Jazz is a 1979 American musical film directed by Bob Fosse. The screenplay by Robert Alan Aurthur and Fosse is a semi-autobiographical fantasy based on aspects of Fosse's life and career as dancer, choreographer and director. The film was inspired by Bob Fosse's manic effort to edit his...
. In fact, it seems to have hit bottom in Night Game." The review further stated, "It's hard to see what could have been done to liven up Night Game, short of having someone run into the Galveston Police Department yelling "Shark!" Too bad no one does."
Behind the scenes
The movie was covered in the July 1989 Houston Astros program on pages 58 and 59. An author is not listed."Glenn Davis has proven repeatedly that he has a flair for the dramatic. With his consistent game-winning RBIs, one might say he almost performs on cue. And in August, he will prove it again, not only to Astros fans, but across America, when he belts a homer in the upcoming movie, Night Game. Parts of the movie were filmed in the Astrodome last year and director Peter Masterson says Davis proved to be the man he needed for a tricky plot twist. "We needed an Astro to hit a home run and Davis was the one that hit it, so he got in the movie," laughed Masterson in a call from his New York home."
"Night Game" was the first movie in years to be filmed in the Astrodome, joining "Brewster McCloud
Brewster McCloud
Brewster McCloud is a 1970 movie, directed by Robert Altman, about a young recluse who lives in a fallout shelter of the Houston Astrodome, where he is building a pair of wings so he can fly. He is helped by his fairy godmother, played by Sally Kellerman....
", a peculiar 1971 Robert Altman
Robert Altman
Robert Bernard Altman was an American film director and screenwriter known for making films that are highly naturalistic, but with a stylized perspective. In 2006, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized his body of work with an Academy Honorary Award.His films MASH , McCabe and...
film largely shot in the stadium, "The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training
The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training
The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training is the 1977 sequel to the feature film The Bad News Bears.This film picks up the Bears' career a year after their infamous second-place finish in the North Valley League. However, after winning this year, they are left reeling by the departure of Buttermaker...
", and "Murder at the World Series", an ABC-TV movie of the week that featured the Astros in a World Series before they had even won a division championship. This newest movie is also a murder mystery. Roy Scheider plays a Galveston detective who is cheering for the Astros in the midst of a tight pennant race. But one problem, he is assigned to track down a serial killer. And Scheider is discovering that the murders take place on the same night that Houston wins games.
"Night Game" was originally scripted to be set in San Francisco, but Masterson, a Houston native, who has also made "The Trip to Bountiful
The Trip to Bountiful
The Trip to Bountiful is a 1985 film starring Geraldine Page, John Heard, Carlin Glynn, Richard Bradford and Rebecca De Mornay. Geraldine Page won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance as Carrie Watts. The movie was adapted by Horton Foote from his television play. The Trip to...
" and wrote "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas is a musical with a book by Texas author Larry L. King and Peter Masterson and music and lyrics by Carol Hall...
", decided to bring the movie to Texas. "It seemed more interesting to bring it to Houston. A lot of movies are made in San Francisco and not as many in Houston or Galveston," the director said. "I think it worked out better; it's a different kind of locale. Critical to the move though was the availability of the Dome, he said. Filming during the games was limited to capturing crowd reaction, wide-angle shots of the teams and the occasional player at bat. Dodgers outfielder Mike Marshall was, like Davis, expected to hit a homer, Masterson said. But the director found that dingers in the Dome aren't all that common. "We tried our best, but he didn't cooperate," Masterson smiled, admitting that he had to resort to footage of a Marshall single and "we cut real quick after the crack of the bat to crowd shots."
Much more Dome footage will involve players no one is familiar with though. Masterson said former Astro Norm Miller, now a team executive, arranged for squads of amateur players to imitate the pros. "After games ended, we got the field. We simulated some on-the-field stuff and got the close ups we needed," Masterson recalled. "We worked until dawn every night. As soon as it got too light, we'd have to quit. In addition to present and past Astro stars, Houstonians will also recognize one more local figure in the movie. Bob Allen, the sports director at KTRK-TV Channel 13 plays the Astros' play-by-play broadcaster. Masterson said the anchorman "did a really good job."