Crimes Of Passion

Director Ken Russell is probably best known to mainstream audiences for helming The Who's Tommy. But Mr. Russell has created some truly great, bizarre, and sexual masterpieces that have seemed to have fallen by the wayside. His best, in my opinion, is 1984's Crimes Of Passion.

Kathleen Turner stars as Joanna Crane, a fashion designer who leads a double life. At night, she prostitutes herself under the name China Blue. Joanna's daytime employer suspects her of stealing from the company, and hires surveillance expert Bobby Grady, John Laughlin, to spy on her. Bobby is stuck in a sexless marriage, and when he finds out about Joanna's secret life, he is instantly attracted to her. As China, she has also atrracted the attention of a crazed, drugged out, street preacher named the Reverend Peter Shayne, Anthony Perkins. Shayne wants to save her soul by sexually penetrating her to death with a giant vibrator.

This is a terrific look at intimacy issues and guilt that comes with relationships. There's two ways you could look at this film. One is just as a sexual horror film, but I kind of see it as Joanna wanting to give up her life as China and having a real relationship. And that Shayne is a figment of her imagination that might be the answer to killing off her alter ego.

The cast, which also includes Annie Potts and Bruce Davison, is great. Perkins steals the show however in a very over the top performance. His character was originally written to be a shoe salesman, but Perkins suggested that he should be a preacher as a satire on American sexual mores. Supposedly Perkins was very method in his performance. He had himself ordained, and according to Turner, he would sniff nitrate before takes. In her autobiography, Turner wrote about how miserable she was on the set. She constantly fought with Perkins and Russell. She butted heads with Russell over the amount of nudity. She still turned in a great performance.

Originally Cher and Jeff Bridges were set to star as Joanna and Bobby, but with this being a low budget movie, they couldn't afford them. Patrick Swayze and Alec Baldwin both auditioned for Bobby before the role went to Laughlin.

This is one sexy and twisted ride that I truly enjoy.

Unfortunately it's out of print on dvd.