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A Night in Heaven

1983 film by John G. Avildsen

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 29, 2026
Entity authorityQ1615593 ↗
Source-derived summary

A Night in Heaven is a 1983 American romantic drama film directed by John G. Avildsen, starring Christopher Atkins as college student Rick Monroe and Lesley Ann Warren his professor Faye Hanlon. The film's screenplay was written by Joan Tewkesbury. Film critics widely panned the film, but the film itself became better known for Bryan Adams' chart-topping single "Heaven".

Plot

Outspoken and overconfident Rick Monroe is a jock and a popular guy at a community college in Titusville, Florida. At the end of his final report for his class, Rick cracks a joke and his prim and proper speech professor, Faye Hanlon, is not amused. After chiding him for his joke, she decides to flunk him and make him take the course over again.

Faye is going through a slump in her marriage to Whitney Hanlon, a rocket scientist who has just been laid off from NASA. Visiting from Chicago, Faye's free-spirited sister Patsy takes her to a male strip club to cheer her up. The show features a performer called "Ricky the Rocket", who is none other than Faye's student Rick. This is the same place where Rick works on the side as a male stripper to pay for his fees. When he notices Faye in the crowd, he gives her a very special lap dance, kissing her in the process.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “A Night in Heaven” as 1983 film by John G. Avildsen. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1983—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1983-01-01. The account is most persuasive where Night, Heaven and film can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as 1983 film by John G. Avildsen. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1615593. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1983.

Critical limits

Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “A Night in Heaven”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow A Night in Heaven primary sources, A Night in Heaven archive and Night research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “A Night in Heaven”?
  2. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
  3. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “A Night in Heaven” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.