crimes of passion

Kathleen Turner's slow disappearance from the big screen after burning it up with Body Heat and Romancing the Stone is almost inexplicable. Like most actresses she was unfairly judged by her looks, her weight and her fading sex appeal, but it seemed like it all ended far too soon. Or maybe she just never aspired to be an empty Hollywood starlet, forever in the shadow of her Lauren Bacall-esque image. To judge by her role in Crimes of Passion, Ken Russell's 1984 twisted relationship drama, in which her character rapes a police officer with his own nightstick, it's safe to say Turner had her own career path in mind.

Joanna Crane (Turner) is a designer by day and a dirty whore by night. Working under the alias China Blue, complete with platinum wig, crotchless panties and a purse full of sex toys, Joanna keeps a room at a sleazy motel and lords over her loyal clientele. But her secret identity is revealed by a part-time private investigator, Bobby (John Laughlin), and the two wind up with genuine feelings for one another after a night of paid-for passion. Bobby's marriage to Amy (Annie Potts), which was already on the rocks, is now nothing but an inconvenience as he attempts to prove his love to Joanna...who has commitment issues of her own. Meanwhile another threat waits on the fringes under the guise of Reverend Peter Shayne (Anthony Perkins), a perverted street preacher who sees his salvation in "curing" Joanna of her sinful addictions.

Crimes of Passion desperately wants to say something meaningful about '80s relationships of the emotional, physical, marital and uncommitted sort. But Barry Sandler's script reeks of that desperation. Even given a cinematic enema highlighted by Russell's exuberant visual signatures, the movie still feels like a puerile 13-year-old trying out dirty words for the first time. And it's to Kathleen Turner's credit that salacious dialogue plays as well as it does. Who else could pull off a line like, "I never forget a face. Especially one that I've sat on."

Turner gives the role everything she's got, even if there's not much there to work with, spitting and swallowing every filthy word in the book. The film simply wouldn't work without her. And her scenes with Anthony Hopkins, who's surprisingly game to suffer through not one but two Psycho homages, are like twisters of torrid dialogue pulled from a failed one-act avant garde production on Beverly Boulevard. Crimes of Passion may be nothing more than a novelty now ("See the former A-list actress give head and take names!") but it also proves that Turner might just always have been a little too daring for the mainstream.

Arrow Video's blu-ray presentation is a tremendously colorful affair, offering the first real glimpse at how Russell's film probably played on the big screen. A big selling point is the inclusion of the theatrical version and a longer unrated cut created by splicing in sequences from a videotape master. The extras give everyone a chance to make their case in defense of the film itself, starting with screenwriter Barry Sadler who sits down for a lengthy interview. I'm not sure I buy his justification for the film itself, but his career history is interesting enough all on its own. He's joined by the late Ken Russell for an audio commentary that sports some great anecdotes and info as well. And composer Rick Wakeman, whose keyboard score dates the film more than any of the big hair or fashion choices, is given his 30-minutes of screen time. There are also about 20-minutes of deleted scenes with commentary from Sadler as to why they were left out of the film, a music video, trailers, essays and liner notes.