They wanted a tenant in the worst way. And that's what they got.

Patty and Drake want their downstairs tenant to pay the rent. He won't. They want him to leave. He won't. And the tenant, a sociopathic scam artist, has made sure he has the law on his side.

"Check All References" may be a landlord credo, and in the case of this jolting cat-and-mouse thriller, the references are impeccable. Melanie Griffith and Matthew Modine play the over-mortgaged couple whose hope of keeping their renovated Victorian dream home depends on leasing the downstairs. Michael Keaton is Carter Hayes, a frighteningly dangerous nightmare who's out to claim the house for himself. And John Schlesinger (Midnight Cowboy) directs, lifting Pacific Heights to unsettling heights of palpable suspense.