new york nights 1984

Nine New Yorkers' successful lives all intertwined in a treacherous tale of passion, a game of seduction. The only rule; anything goes.

Three women from different backgrounds wind up sharing the same luxury apartment in New York City while looking for rich husbands.

Shot at Liberty State Park in New Jersey and in lower Manhattan, "New York 1981" exemplifies the sensitivity and artfulness that small-gauge filmmakers were capable of achieving through the dreamlike treatment of place, time of day, weather, and movement.

1981, Manhattan. Six New York City drag queens grapple with the hardships of being queer in a cruel world when one of their own gets caught in the cross-hairs of a new looming threat.

A look at the culture of 1980s New York.

Made in 2005, this documentary traces the history of NY, NY, beginning with the formation of the producing partnership between Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff. It was they who developed the initial script with writer Earl Rauch. Winkler met Scorsese at a screening of Mean Streets, and when Scorsese heard that Winkler was developing a script set in the "big band" era, he asked to read it. Winkler and Chartoff discuss casting, and Scorsese and Kovacs discuss the look of the film. Editor Tom Rolf notes the irony (some might say the injustice) that Minnelli, who brought Kander & Ebb into the project, did not have a hit with the title song, which wasn't even nominated for an Oscar. It didn't get noticed until two years later, when Frank Sinatra recorded it. Today most people probably don't realize it was written for a movie.

John Bentley hates New York City, because of an unhappy romance as a young man, but his son, Ronald, tired of living in Iowa, is determined to take up residence in Manhattan. The elder Bentley therefore conspires with his New York manager, William Workman, to involve Ronald in so much trouble that he will gladly return to the sedate life of an Iowa burgher. Arriving in Manhattan, Ronald strikes up an acquaintance with Meg, a telephone operator, whose brother, Jimmy, has come under the evil influence of Jerry. Jerry and Jimmy rob a wealthy woman, and Ronald is charged with the crime on circumstantial evidence, keeping quiet in order to protect Jimmy.

Show girl Jill Deverne is married to song writer Fred Deverne, and everyone is involved in the Broadway night life and endless parties. Jill is being pursued by a gangster, and she leaves her husband after he spends the night with a floozie. Jill ends up as the gangster's moll, but she soon gets tired of the lifestyle.