Decade-defining box office smash starring Patrick Swayze in one of his most famous roles. Frances 'Baby' Houseman (Jennifer Grey) is a teenage girl on holiday with her family at a resort in the Catskill Mountains. Stumbling upon an off-limits employees-only party, she witnesses the staff getting down and dirty to the R 'n' B hits of the day. The hotel's dance instructor Johnny (Swayze) catches her eye in particular, and, despite their differences in class, age and experience, the couple begin to fall in love. Features the Oscar-winning song '(I've Had) the Time of My Life' as performed by Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes.

Jones uncovers the fascinating inside story of the making of this film, one of the American Film Institutes's 100 Greatest Thrillers. Every aspect is revealed of the film's development and production - casting, design, shooting, scoring, and editing - to the profound disappointment upon its release. This book is the result of over a decade of archival research and interviews with a dozen key people associated with the film, including Grubb, Gregory, actors Robert Mitchum and Lillian Gish and cinematographer Stanley Cortez. Their oral histories, along with numerous artifacts and film stills, are here deftly assembled into an account that is as compelling as the movie it celebrates.