Pacific Heights
Tags: revenge, suspenseful, neo noir

Plot synopsis:
Carter Hayes (Michael Keaton) makes love to a woman (Beverly D'Angelo) in a nice house as 2 men enter and attack him with a bat. He talks about leaving.Drake (Matthew Modine) and girlfriend Patty (Melanie Griffith) are house hunting in San Francisco. They purchase a house with rooms that can be rented, and set about remodelling. Several people look at the units, and Toshio (Mako) and Mira (Nobu McCarthy) Watanabe rent one. Another potential renter, Lou Baker (Carl Lumbly), wants to rent the other, but his application is lost during move-in. Carter arrives and pays for 2 month's rent, but refuses to fill out a credit application. Drake calls Carter's references and speaks to Carter's lover Ann, who asks for the house address.Carter seems shifty, but covers smoothly when questioned. His down payment never arrives, but he's already moved in. Construction work seems to be going on in his unit, and Carter has changed the locks. He also seems to be fixated with phone books. Drake tries to sue for eviction; Drake and Patty are short on money, and tempers flare. Drake witnesses a fight between Carter and his roommate, and realizes Carter has been breeding cockroaches to drive off the other tenants. The courts rule against Drake, and Carter continues to annoy him. Patty has a miscarriage.Carter comes by the next morning, and Drake attacks him. The police, tipped off by Carter prior, arrest Drake. Carter files for a restraining order and begins stalking Patty. Drake tries to see Patty and Carter shoots him and places a tire iron in his hand, faming him for assault. The courts finally evict Carter, but he has stripped the place bare. Patty files a police report with, of all people, Detective Baker, the original rent applicant.Patty discovers Carter's name is James Danforth, and that he is legally severed from his family trust. Patty begins tracking Carter's previous scams, questioning Ann and learning where Carter is. She tails him, watching him scam other people. She sneaks into his hotel room and charges up a huge room service bill. She also tells Drake to cancel his credit cards, as Carter has been using them. Carter is arrested.Patty and Drake start to rebuild their house. Carter sneaks in and attacks Drake. He comes after Patty, and she and Drake fight him, killing him.Months later, Drake and Patty are selling this house - for a profit.====================================================================At an upscale Palm Springs resort, a man, Carter Hayes and his lover, Ann, are enjoying an evening of sex. Suddenly, the door bursts open and two men with baseball bats enter and beat him severely. Ann is mildly injured herself. She holds Carter, who talks about leaving.In San Francisco Drake Goodman and his girlfriend Patty Palmer are house hunting in the city's upscale Pacific Heights neighborhood. They find a large, Victorian fixer-upper comprised of three apartments. Patty and Drake look upon the house as an investment and know they can make their mortgage payments by renting out two of the apartments: one is a small studio, the other is a one-bedroom. Patty and Drake fix them up to look more modern, handling almost all the work themselves.Among the first applicants are a pleasant Japanese couple, Toshio and Mira Watanabe, who agree to rent the one-bedroom. Another applicant, Lou Baker, talks about how he and his wife are divorcing and he needs a place to live. He's reluctant to fill out a credit application but Patty insists and Baker finally agrees, saying that he's been nervous because of the trouble with his wife. He returns the application, slipping it under the front door, however it becomes lost when the Watanabe's move in. While screening applicants for the studio, Drake meets Carter Hayes. Hayes is also reluctant to fill out an application for credit & references and also flashes a large amount of money in front of Drake, promising he'll pay for the security deposit and six months rent in advance, however he also says that he's unexpectedly short. Drake agrees, believing that Hayes will wire the money to his bank account but is also firm about Hayes filling out the application. The woman that Hayes was in bed with when he was beaten acts as a reference for Hayes and tells Drake that he was a model tenant when he rented from her.Patty finds Hayes in the apartment one day, asking who he is and seeing that Hayes has brought dozens of out-of-town phone books with him and has stacked them around. Hayes explains that he'd talked to Drake, who'd said weeks prior that he could move in. Patty wonders why Drake wouldn't tell her; Drake tells her that Hayes should not be occupying the apartment because they haven't received his security deposit. Drake becomes increasingly frustrated and angry when the bank tells him the money hasn't arrived. When he tries to talk to Hayes, a strange man, Greg, answers the door and tells Drake that Hayes is out of town. Just then Ann arrives, demanding to speak to Carter. Greg lets her in & the two begin to argue, ignoring Drake.One night Toshio complains to Drake that there is loud pounding and other noise coming from Hayes' apartment. When Drake tries to enter the apartment to investigate, he finds that Hayes has changed the locks. The noise continues. In a fury, Drake illegally turns off the electricity and heat to the unit. Hayes calls the police who, though they understand Drake's plight, order him to turn on the utilities. They also inform Drake that tenant's laws protect Hayes as much as his landlord. Patty and Drake are then forced to hire an exterminator when roaches appear under Toshio and Mira's sink. The expense will be high and the couple are already in debt, creating further tension between them.To evict Hayes, Drake and Patty retain a lawyer, Stephanie MacDonald, who tells them that cases like this are common: a con-artist who knows the laws and the system will act the same way that Hayes has & even try to drive out the owners of the property. The case will take several months and the possibility of getting any money from Hayes is near zero, however, Drake and Patty simply want Hayes gone. Patty also tells Drake that she's pregnant.Another night Hayes makes even more noise in his apartment and Drake enters the crawlspace under the studio and, through an air duct, witnesses an argument between Greg and Hayes, which escalates into a physical fight. A jar falls on the air duct and shatters, spilling large roaches onto Drake's face. Later, in their apartment, Drake surmises correctly that Hayes is somehow breeding roaches in his apartment in an attempt to drive out the Watanabes. Drake also discovers that Hayes has kidnapped the stray cat Drake and Patty took in when they moved into the house.Patty starts to feel ill, having morning sickness. Drake comes home one night to find Patty weak and crying in the bathroom. She has miscarried the pregnancy and ends up hospitalized for a few days. When she returns, Hayes shows up at their door, offering flowers in sympathy for Patty and to make peace between him and Drake. Drake is infuriated and tackles Hayes. The two fall down the stairs and Drake beats Hayes severely. Just then, the police arrive an arrest Drake -- Hayes had phoned the police and reported a physical altercation in the house prior to talking to Patty and Drake. Drake is charged with assault and Hayes obtains a restraining order that keeps Drake from coming within 500 yards of the house.Drake stays with a friend. Patty, spooked when Hayes places a harassing phone call to her, calls Drake at their friend's house. Drake goes to his house immediately and enters in violation of the restraining order. Hayes finds him in the main hallway of the house and shoots him in the arm and shoulder with a pistol. He places a crowbar in Drake's hand, again framing him for assault.With Drake in the hospital, Patty oversees the house and the final eviction of Hayes. A city sheriff has the door opened and Patty finds that the apartment has been completely stripped. Hayes and his partner had everything removed and probably sold. At the police station Patty meets with Baker, the man that had applied first for the studio apartment, who turns out to be an SFPD detective. He says he'll do what he can to retrieve the stolen property but cases like this are hard to solve. He suggests that Patty let it go and consider herself and Drake lucky that Hayes didn't seize the house from them.Among the ruins in the studio, Patty finds a photograph that has a name on it: James Danforth. Patty begins to investigate the name and finds that Hayes had once been a member of an affluent family and the recipient of a private trust, however his family now pays him to stay away from them. Patty tracks Hayes to Palm Springs and finds Ann, who tells Patty she loves Drake but tolerates his games and even partners with him to con others -- the house she currently lives in was awarded to her and Hayes when the landlord tried to evict them by force. She shows Patty a postcard she'd gotten from Hayes with a picture of a Los Angeles hotel on it.Patty goes to LA looking for Hayes at the hotel. She follows him and finds out he's spending a large amount of his time with a rich widow. Patty is able to gain entry to Hayes' room at the hotel and discovers that he has been staying there under the name of Drake Goodman. He has even had identification cards forged with Drake's name and has set up credit accounts and an identical bank account in Drake's name. Patty craftily begins to turn the tide against Hayes by posing as Carter's wife and then charging an huge amount of hotel services to Hayes' room, reporting the fake credit cards and Hayes' traveler's checks as stolen, reporting his stolen Porsche to the police and stealing a large amount of petty cash for herself. She has Drake call the customer service number for the duplicate bank account and cancel it. When Hayes returns to the hotel, the hotel manager tells him that there are problems with his credit. The manager also tells Hayes that his "wife" is responsible for the charges to his room. The manager allows Hayes to go to his room to find answers; he and Patty pass in the hallway and Patty narrowly escapes. Hayes is arrested but doesn't stay in jail for long; he convinces the widow he's been sweet-talking to post bail for him.At home, Drake rests upstairs from his hospital stay and Patty performs a few touch-ups on the studio. She uses a pneumatic nail gun to put pieces of plywood over the holes Hayes left in the floor. Hayes returns to the house and beats Drake with a golf-club. Hayes tricks Patty into re-entering the apartment by imitating their cat, locks the door and threatens her with the nail gun. Drake, unable to enter because of the latched door, tries to enter through the hole in the floor. Patty is able to temporarily force Hayes off her and Drake grabs his leg from below the hole, causing Hayes to pitch backwards and fall on the sharpened ends of the piping to the sink he stole. Hayes twitches and dies.Several months later, Patty and Drake sell the house to another yuppie couple. When asked why they want to walk away from such a beautiful home, Patty says "it was just an investment."

Review: Prior to this film,we only saw Michael Keaton in comedic,and good guy roles.In Pacific Heights,he proves to us that he is not afraid to turn on us and be the bad guy.Keaton is excellent as Carter Hayes,the worst kind of no account,as he knows how to stay just out of reach of the law.
The character is very similar to that of Max Cady in Cape Fear,though Cady is the far more memorable of the two.Carter Hayes is a nightmarish tenant wreaking havoc on the lives of his helpless landlords,wonderfully played by Melanie Griffith and Matthew Modine.I consider this film to be an overlooked classic that never really got the attention it deserved,perhaps because no one wanted to see Keaton,particularly after his Batman success,as a villain.Those looking for a modern day "Hitchcock-esque" thriller will find a winner here.Thumbs up!.
There was never anything particularly suspenseful about the film, and you pretty much know who will win by the end, but the loathesome Michael Keaton character helped to keep me interested throughout.
William Goldman says that the last 15 minutes are the most important of any movie and that's what saves what is otherwise a sometimes fascinating but often dull film in "Pacific Heights."The plot line is fairly interesting but feels rather drawn out through most of the film, until the fantastic ending pulls out all the stops and turns the film into something good.
The writing in general is a bit contrived and the dialogue fairly wooden, but it isn't quite enough to destroy the film even early.The acting is very uneven, led by a terrible Melanie Griffith and a middling performance by Matthew Modine in terms of screen time, but certainly controlled by the fantastic performance of Michael Keaton, one of the world's greatest actors.
His use of lighting and well-chosen camera angles wonderfully play up the situation.Overall, "Pacific Heights" is a middling film with a fantastic performance by Michael Keaton and good direction by John Schlesinger that turns into something better with its fantastic, surprising, venemously satisfying ending.
An unusual choice for Michael Keaton to follow up his first "Batman" movie with him going from hero and to outright villain.Plot In A Paragraph: Drake Goodman (Modine) and Patty Palmer (Griffith)an unmarried couple, purchase an expensive 19th-century house in the exclusive Pacific Heights neighbourhood.
Before any of that happens he moves in unannounced and refuses to leave.Melanie Griffith whilst looking great is awful acting wise, and Matthew Modine had me questioning how this man forged a career as an actor.
Some of my main annoyances came from his character, and I had my concerns that he may end up being the real psycho, but his performance really was dire.It's Keaton as the villain of the piece, who shines and gives the movie it's best scenes.
Drake Goodman (Matthew Modine) and his girlfriend Patty Palmer (Melanie Griffith) are stretching their finances to the limit to buy a San Francisco house.
Since I expected more, I was disappointed.The only interesting character was the villain, "Carter Hayes," played nicely by Michael Keaton.
This movie needed more scenes with him in it, and less of the two other major characters: "Drake Goodman." (Matthew Modine) and "Patty Palmer" (Melanie Griffith).This starts off promising, as if it's going to be very suspenseful.
When San Francisco renters Patty Palmer (Melanie Griffith) and Drake Goodman (Matthew Modine) fix up an apartment, they sell it to newcomer Carter Hayes (Michael Keaton).
"Pacific Heights" is based on a true story, about a couple who rent out an apartment to a crazy scam man, played by Michael Keaton in the film, who reak havoc.
Sick little film has the dark and shady Michael Keaton terrorizing Melanie Griffith and Matthew Modine after he rents the ground-floor apartment from the young couple.
To call such nonsense drivel is to pay it a compliment.As for the cast, Michael Keaton is enigmatically menacing as the tenant, but Matthew Modine and Melanie Griffith are largely (I think unintentionally) irritating as the couple he targets as his victims.
Then there's Michael Keaton who was actually quite a fun character and a typical "baddie" to have."Pacific Heights" offers nothing much new with an all too familiar storyline, 'Bad Tennants', and although it was quite entertaining and not really that boring, it just offered nothing new but frustration.
Highlights are far too infrequent, in a movie that never could decide what mode it was in.Cast - all just there, and nothing more - included Matthew Modine, Melanie Griffith and Michael Keaton.
Although Melanie Griffiths exemplifies all that everyone hates about the cutesie pretty girl next door, this film offers what is possibly Michael Keatons best performance.
Michael Keaton, who made his way by usually being likable, plays the demented Carter Hayes who apparently does this kind of thing for a living.
He destroys the interior with loud power tools at all hours, he releases roaches into the neighboring apartment, and has a creepy jerk living with him for whatever reason you could imagine.Things between Keaton and the yuppies go south right away, so the balance of the film deals with them trying to evict him.
He's a professional." That's the advice given to the Melanie Griffith and Matthew Modine - the couple in this movie - when they are robbed blind by the tenant from hell.
If they meet a nice, attractive, hardworking and likable couple justifiably proud of their dream house such a sociopath will only have one thought in their head; "How do I get it away from them?" In these days of second mortgages and 'extreme makeovers' we can hardly be surprised if this kind of villain multiplies faster than the cockroaches Keaton releases into Griffith and Modine's house.Watching this movie was certainly cathartic for me - and the ending was certainly satisfying.
Every time I view this film, I just simply hate Michael Keaton(Carter Hayes)"Jack Frost" '98, as the sick tenant who drives Melanie Griffith (Patty Palmer), "The Shade" '03, simply crazy along with Matthew Modine (Drake Goodman),"Hairy Tale"'03, who is driven completely NUTS.
Michael Keaton's performance in Pacific Heights is interesting, but the film practically makes no sense.
A twist in plot, but a very enjoyable movie.When Patty (Melanie Griffith) and Drake (Matthew Modine), a young couple starting out together, decide to pool their resources and buy a home with two rental units inside, they have no idea how much trouble is waiting for them on the horizon.
Patty and Drake are a young couple who has decided to move in together and they buy a pricey Victorian house in Pacific Heights,San Fransisco and renovates it meticulously.Since the price was so high,they decide to find some tenants for the two apartments on the first floor,one goes to a timid Japanese couple and the other to....yea,you take a guess.That's right,a psychopath who enjoys cockroach-breeding,played by the for the role well suited Michael Keaton.He seem like a normal,proper businessman with a Porsche and good income at first sight,but nothing is what seems.Soon he starts to alter the life of Patty and Drake very significantly.
A young couple played by Melanie Griffith and Matthew Modine, buys there dream house and the new tenant played by Michael Keaton wrecks havoc with their lives.
SF couple (Matthew Modine, Melanie Griffith) purchase a $1 million Victorian house and rent out the individual apartments.
Keaton, cast against type as a psycho, is good, but the rest of the film can't match him and what could have been an edge-of-the-seat movie like THE HAND THAT ROCKS THE CRADLE turns out to be merely so-so.John Schlesinger, who made the excellent MARATHON MAN amongst others, over-directs the film so that it looks like a music video.
Predictibly, their perfect plan is destroyed by a seemingly respectable tenant(played well in a rare villain role by Michael Keaton) who ends up driving away other tenants and putting a strain on the couple's relationship with his increasingly erratic behavior.The film is suspenseful right up until the last minute, but there were some problems.
Central players Melanie Griffith, Matthew Modine and villainous Michael Keaton are each solid, yet John Schlesinger directs with shallow showiness; his tricks, including a dopey nightmare sequence, cause one to lose faith in the proceedings long before the too-timid, unsatisfying fade-out.
He's playing the tenant from Hell, terrorizing couple-of-the-year Melanie Griffith and Matthew Modine, but I can only describe this is a real estate thriller - which is just as exciting as it sounds.
This makes the story very formulaic, but I do give credit for the third act because it went in a direction I did not expect.Playing the young spirited couple are Melanie Griffith as Patty Palmer and Matthew Modine as Drake Goodman.
The vicious character of Carter Hayes played by Michael Keaton is so good (or rather bad!) that immediately the viewer sympathizes with the landlords (Griffin and Modine) and begins detesting Keaton and his infamous friends.
A young couple, (Modine and Griffith-equally yery good) so much in love, become landlords, renting out this two story Victorian house, to some suitable trusting tenants, to keep money in flow.
This poor couple who's life is turned into a sheer nightmare of landlord hell, where they reach utter depths of despair, really gets you angry, you wanna put the knife into Keaton, as does the other tenants like Mako, a soft sided character here, who practices tai chi on his balcony, it's reminds of his kung fu movie playing days.
Not impossible, but even if they had been able to obtain it as shown, the costs and time incident to their refurbishing would have taken far longer and been far harder to achieve than shown or implied in the film.They looked and acted like a couple of college kids who might have been renovating a studio flat in an inexpensive college town -- not like a pair of yuppies involved in a real estate enterprise, overall, around the low 7-figure range.They even looked a bit like doophuses in dealing with prospective tenants, and pretty much in all aspects of their relationship and activities.In many ways, the sociopathic (this character's a time capsule example to illustrate the word "sociopath") Keaton was the most empathetic figure among the leads.**Possible spoiler material following**Even in this age of identity theft, and the capability to do wonders with computers, credit records, credit cards, etc.
Getting rid of the Devil (MICHAEL KEATON plays a truly psychopathic nutcase) proves a strain on the marriage of MELANIE GRIFFITH and MATTHEW MODINE, until they discover that he's not only a one man demolition team but has stolen her husband's identity in some sort of real estate scam.With all of these events taking place, you know you're headed for a bang-up ending once Melanie makes it her personal mission to destroy the evil Keaton--and we do get a satisfying ending when her mission turns out not to be too impossible.If you stop to think about all the loop-holes in the story, you'll find yourself getting restless long before the ending.
But it works as a stark nightmare of what kind of tenant abuse really can exist in today's society, especially if a nutcase is involved.MELANIE GRIFFITH(she of the somewhat annoying speech patterns and squeaky tones) is reasonably good as the stronger in the marriage partnership, but it's clearly a field day for MICHAEL KEATON who walks off with the film as the devilish psychopath..
Schlesingers story about two dating landlords (griffith and modine) who cant get a strange man (Keaton) out of an apartment that he is not paying rent for.
THe acting in this film was decent, Griffith was annoying, i didn't like her performance, Modine was decent, but Keaton was great in the villain role.
Typically pedestrian performances by Melanie Griffith and Matthew Modine didn't help the cause, and while Michael "I'm not just a comedian" Keaton was credible as the malevolent tenant, he alone could not rescue the film.
This film was made in the early 90's when suspense/thrillers were making a comeback; Michael Keaton, while not a favorite, was quite good.Melanie Griffith and Matthew Modine portray a young couple wanting to make a real estate investment, so they purchase a Pacific Heights building, and proceed to renovate it.
Pacific Heights is an underrated movie and has Michael Keaton playing a sinister role as the tenant from hell.
Pacific Heights is an underrated movie and has Michael Keaton playing a sinister role as the tenant from hell.
Pacific Heights is an underrated movie and has Michael Keaton playing a sinister role as the tenant from hell.
This is a rather entertaining and suspenseful thriller starring Matthew Modine and Melanie Griffith as Drake Goodman and Patty Palmer - a couple who buys their dream house in an upscale San Francisco neighborhood.
To help pay their mortgage, they've rented their two downstairs apartments out, including one to the mysterious Carter Hayes (Michael Keaton).
This isn't to say everything should've been spelled out, but a little more character clarity on the part of Carter - or a more gradual progression of the character mechanics - might have made it a legitimately good movie.As it is, Pacific Heights is at best a guilty pleasure, a flick that's not dated well but certainly has a lot of fun moments in watching these actors play these sorta-yuppies in this would-be cat/mouse game.
John Schlesinger directed this thriller that stars Mathew Modine & Melanie Griffith as Drake Goodman & Patty Palmer, a young couple who buy an old house in the Pacific Heights section of San Francisco.
***SPOILERS*** Putting a down payment to their dream house the $750,000.00 Victorian dwelling on 170 Pacific Street in the trendy Pacific Heights section of San Francico both Drake Goodman, Matthew Modine, and his live in girlfriend Patty Palmer, Melaine Griffith, went straight to refurbishing it.
Later on the two advertise the place in the local newspaper for tenants whom they feel would, with the scarce apartment situation in San Francisco as it is, love to live there.Everything seems to be going right for Drake & Patty until Carter Hayes, Michael Keaton, shows up out of nowhere looking for a place to stay.
Michael Keaton or should I say "Carter Hayes"still to this day freaks me out in this.The last 30 minutes or so of this film work perfectly and every time I see it,it keeps me engaged.Every time I hear Melanie's voice no matter what movie it is,it exudes sex.
It all starts when a couple (Melanie Griffith and Matthew Modine) buy their dreamhouse but as such things are expensive (yeah we know!) they must rent two parts of the house.
Drake Goodman (Modine) really cant hear anything bad about Carter Hayes (Keaton) especially not if he sees the money in the mans wallet but Patty (Griffith) isn't that convinced and soon she has right as the promised rentmoney never cames and Drake develops himself to a real evil  and it's not just the house he wants destroy and with tears in their eyes the young couple must witness how the American justice protects the renter...
It is the tale of two newlyweds (Melanie Griffith as Patty; Matt Modine as Drake), slightly short on reasonable income, who buy a hefty house in Pacific Heights.
Keaton, well-dressed, polite, aces out other tenants and rents one of two apartments in an old Victorian house that a yuppie couple, Modine and Griffith, have just gone deeply into hock to buy and have lovingly refurbished.
Instead of a Freddy Krueger or a Michael Myers we have Michael Keaton as a psychotic tenant who makes life hell for his landlords Melanie Griffith and Matthew Modine.
Even if it occasionally gets into some muddy areas along the way, Pacific Heights is compelling to the very end.Modine and Griffith play Drake Goodman and Patty Palmer.
The tension then builds steadily as the conflict becomes increasingly intense and the stakes get higher.Drake Goodman (Matthew Modine) and his girlfriend Patty Palmer (Melanie Griffith) are an ambitious middle-class couple who decide to buy a Victorian house in the Pacific Heights neighbourhood of San Francisco.
Basically boyfriend Drake Goodman (Matthew Modine) and girlfriend Patty Palmer (Melanie Griffith) buy a large San Fransisco neighbourhood house, and they renovate it planning to rent two apartments on the first floor to cover the costs.
Keaton might not have been on as much as I'd like, but he certainly made a creepy performance, Griffith and Modine add some interest too, most of the story is a bit ridiculous and it continues to get more so, but it is still an okay film.
Pacific Heights (for some strange reason I keep calling it specific heights!) is set in the upmarket San Francisco suburb of Pacific Heights where young couple Patty Palmer (Melanie Griffith) & Drake Goodman (Mathew Modine) buy a large $750,000 19th Century Victorian property with plans to do it up, rent two apartments within it out & let the place pay for it's own mortgage.
The acting varies, I thought Melanie Griffith was awful, Matthew Modine alright & Michael Keaton very good.
One of the better ones was "Pacific Heights", which starred Melanie Griffith and Matthew Modine as a young couple who renovate a group of apartments.
The film then shifts to a man by the name of "Drake Goodman" (Matthew Modine) and his girlfriend "Patty Parker" (Melanie Griffith) buying a large Victorian house with the intent on renting some of the rooms out in order to help pay off their sizeable mortgage.
Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this is the type of film that is was an interesting movie for the most part which included a good performance by Michael Keaton as the dark and sinister villain.
Melanie Griffith, Matthew Modine and Michael Keaton star in this 1990 thriller.
This takes place in San Francisco and focuses on couple, Patty Palmer (Griffith) and Drake Goodman (Modine) who buy a Victorian house.