The Bedroom Window

The Bedroom Window is a 1987 American neo-noir psychological thriller film directed by Curtis Hanson. It stars Steve Guttenberg, Elizabeth McGovern and Isabelle Huppert, and was shot in Baltimore in the Mt. Vernon neighborhood. Based on a novel The Witnesses, by Anne Holden, it tells the story of a young executive who starts an affair with the wife of his boss which then escalates into nightmare after he lies to the police in order to protect her. Plot Terry (Steve Guttenberg) asks his boss's wife Sylvia (Isabelle Huppert) to his apartment after an office party and the two go to bed. Later, while he is in the bathroom, she hears screams outside and goes naked to the window. Seeing a man attacking a young woman, she opens the window and the assailant runs away. When the media report the murder of a young woman near Terry's flat that night, he thinks the police should know what Sylvia saw but, to protect her, claims that it was he who was at the bedroom window. At a police lineup, neither he nor the victim Denise (Elizabeth McGovern) is able to pick out the attacker, Chris. Despite the feeble evidence against him, Chris is put on trial for the assault and during the proceedings his lawyer proves that since Terry is short-sighted, and was supposed to be asleep - and therefore not wearing his contact lenses - when the attack occurred, that he could not have witnessed the incident. Chris goes free, leaving not only the police and the prosecution but also Denise and Sylvia aghast at Terry's ineptness. In the courtroom, Chris recognises Sylvia as the woman at the window. Desperate to warn her, Terry finds her at a ballet performance and tells her she must go to the police, but she refuses all further involvement. As he leaves, he sees Chris's distinctive truck parked outside and rushes in again. He is too late, however, for in the dark she has been stabbed fatally and dies in Terry's arms.