CRIMES OF PASSION. (1984) DIRECTED BY KEN RUSSELL. ELECTRONIC MUSIC BY RICK WAKEMAN. CINEMATOGRAPHY BY DICK BUSH. STARRING KATHLEEN TURNER, ANTHONY PERKINS, JOHN LAUGHLIN, ANNIE POTTS AND BRUCE DAVISON. REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©
'If you think you're getting back in
my panties, you can forget it. There's one a**hole in there
already...'
Oh boy. You guys had better all watch
out. Anthony Perkins is wearing a wig and a dress again and he is
feeling positively murderous...! Haha.
You remember what happened the last time
he did that, right? Correctamundo, my
movie-loving friends.
As
serial killer and deranged Mummy's Boy Norman Bates in Alfred
Hitchcock's horror classic PSYCHO (1960),
he dumped the bodies- and
automobiles- of his victims in the swamp out back of his house, the
Bates Motel. Now what's the mischievous little scallywag gone and done...?
In
CRIMES OF PASSION, one
of two American movies made by the outlandish and even outrageous English
director, Ken Russell, Anthony Perkins plays a deranged killer once
again. This time around, he's a bogus 'Reverend' who
frequents sleazy live sex shows and fantasises about killing the
hookers who dance naked in the booths for him.
These scenes are quite
uncomfortable to watch. Guys are
actually masturbating into tissues while ogling the nudie dancers who are
forced to do this because they need the money. It's seedy beyond belief.
For the most
part, though, this phoney Minister of God is thoroughly fixated on
China Blue, a platinum blonde prostitute with a sassy walk and a
quickfire line in sharp retorts.
The
'Reverend': 'Save your soul, whore.'
China
Blue: 'Save your money, shithead.'
China
Blue is marvellously played by Kathleen Turner, who three years
earlier had made her name in cinema with the steamy-as-hell modern
film noir, BODY HEAT (1980)
with William Hurt. She's brilliant as China Blue, a woman who hides
her emotional pain from previous relationships by sleeping with guys
for money.
She can
fulfil every sexual fantasy from kinky nun to air hostess to beauty
queen without batting a hair, but inside she's as empty as the
wastelands of Siberia. It's an old, old story. Most of us have been
there in some way or another. Well, not
necessarily in the prostitution sense, haha, but in the sense that
we're all guilty of filling the empty spaces inside us with things like sex, food, booze, drugs, retail therapy, expensive holidays or whatever
floats your individual boat.
Her life
becomes complicated, however, when bored, frustrated married man
Bobby Grady turns to her for sexual relief. The sex between them is
so good, though, that the pair soon develop feelings for each other.
Bobby's marriage to his selfish wife Amy is all but dead in the
water, but he still feels a responsibility to Amy and their two kids. He seems like
a genuinely good dad and hubby. That's something he's got going for
him, anyway. I'm afraid I
didn't really dig his painfully 'Eighties looks, though China Blue
obviously did...!
Despite
the obstacles facing them, China Blue and Bobby can't seem to keep away from
each other. And, in the meantime, the crazy, unhinged 'Reverend' reckons
that some kind of Judgement Day is coming for the self-confessed
sinner and bad girl, China Blue.
How the
diddly-doodily can there be a happy ending for China Blue and Bobby
Grady when the Sinister Minister is determined to ruin their
happiness with his murderous sex toy...? Yeah, I know you're puzzled
by that bit, but I ain't telling ya nothing. Ya gotta watch the movie to find
out...! And will China Blue ever feel brave enough to stop hiding
behind that dinky little blue silk dress and platinum wig, cute as they are?
Kathleen
Turner is utterly believable as the hooker with a heart of gold, the
hooker whose heart's been damaged more times than you can shake a
stick at but who hides her pain beneath snappy quips and sex with
strangers. She's vulnerable and fragile beneath the confident,
fast-talking front she puts up, which makes her very appealing to the
viewer, who can feel her pain to an extent.
Her
alter-ego, Joanna Crane the fashion designer, is less believable. In
all honesty, I think the film-makers would have been better off
leaving that bit out altogether. I
just don't feel like it really works. And putting a businesswoman in a dreary old trouser-suit-and-tie ensemble is pretty clichéd,
not to mention deeply unflattering...!
Anthony Perkins is back squinting at nudie women through peepholes
again in this film. Some things clearly never change, haha. It
certainly comes across to the viewer that the horror icon is hugely
enjoying himself playing such an over-the-top, even slightly
ridiculous character and it's a pleasure to watch him doing his own
special demented thing for just under two hours.
I'm
afraid I pretty much loathed Bobby and his wife Amy. The scenes
depicting their tired, clapped-out marriage could almost be from a
different movie to the one in which China Blue is being relentlessly stalked by the
mentally unstable 'Reverend' Peter
Shayne. The film certainly captures the soul-destroying futility of
staying in a marriage that lost its spark years ago.
Scenes
to watch out for include the mortifyingly bad 'Human Penis'
display, the super-kinky silhouette sex (actually, now I
think about it, the Oriental sex-drawings are all worthy of a look
too) and China Blue and the
security guard's night-stick, or, more importantly, where she puts
it...!
There's
also the excruciatingly awful heart-to-heart in bed between Bobby and
Amy, the terrible 'three-way' between China Blue and the business toffs and the scene in which the question is asked of China Blue:
'Do you think that you can raise the
dead...?'
This
always outrageous, sometimes utterly bizarre erotic drama-thriller is
being released on Blu-Ray this July (2016) by the good folk at ARROW
VIDEO. You'll be getting a whole
host of extra features for your buck as well, including an
illustrated booklet which contains: new writing by Ken Russell's
biographer, Paul Sutton; correspondence between Ken Russell and the
divine Ms. Turner, whom I've always loved; and, finally, an on-set interview with Ken Russell himself, the old dear.
There's
a load of other great stuff included too, but sadly there's no
mention of a free 'Superman.' That's
kind of a shame, because I was really looking forward to getting my
grubby little mitts on one of those glittery babies. Confused?
Well, as I said earlier and like I always say,
watch the movie...!
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY OF SANDRA
HARRIS.
Sandra Harris is a Dublin-based novelist, film blogger and movie reviewer. She has studied Creative Writing and Film-Making. She has published a number of e-books on the following topics: horror film reviews, multi-genre film reviews, womens' fiction, erotic fiction, erotic horror fiction and erotic poetry. Several new books are currently in the pipeline. You can browse or buy any of Sandra's books by following the link below straight to her Amazon Author Page:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B015GDE5RO
You can contact Sandra at:
http://sandrafirstruleoffilmclubharris.wordpress.com
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