Night Shift

Night Shift Movie Poster

"Ever since two enterprising young men turned the city morgue into a swinging business, people have been dying to get in".  Night Shift (1982) was one of Ron Howard's first movies as director.  The movie had a large cast, including Henry Winkler as Chuck Lumley, Michael Keaton as Bill Blazejowski, Shelley Long as Belinda Keaton, and even young cameos by Kevin Costner and Shannen Doherty.  The movie received mostly positive reviews from critics, with praise being given to both Winkler and Keaton for their character portrayals.

In this movie, Chuck Lumley (Winkler), former Wall Street Broker, burns out in the rat race and becomes the night attendant at the local morgue.  Everything is fine with his quiet life, until he is promoted to night manager a position he doesn't want.  In reality, the position is a demotion of sorts, as the morgue's manager frees up the day shift to hire family. To makes things work, wacky Bill Blazejowski (Keaton) is hired to work with Chuck, and that is when things get interesting.

When Belinda's (Long) pimp dies, Bill talks Chuck into assuming his role, and he convinces Chuck to put his business skills to work by running a brothel out of the morgue.  The problem isn't so much the fact that the duo is running a whore house from the morgue, but more so Chuck's growing affection for Belinda and the complicated nature of being in love with a hooker.