Crimes of Passion

1984

Scoop's notes:

Quick, name a movie where Anthony Perkins is totally loony, hangs around a run-down hotel/motel, talks to himself, peeps through peepholes at naked women, then ends up wearing a cheap wig and dressed in drag. Oh. Maybe I worded that question wrong. It would be more difficult to name a film where he did NOT do those things. If you can name a Tony Perkins movie at all, it probably fits that description. In addition to Psycho 1 through 37, there's also Crimes of Passion.

Director Ken Russell wanted to make a comedy, and he wanted to make a very serious black drama about the underbelly of society, ala 8mm. And then he figured, "Why not make them both in the same movie?" As a result, I think the film is generally underrated (5.9 at IMDb) because people are evaluating it as a drama/thriller with arty pretensions, while it truly shines only when it is a sleazy black comedy. Oh, sure it's a cheesefest of a movie, but it's supposed to be, dammit, and if it's a bad movie it may be the most watchable and enjoyable bad movie ever made. At any rate, it's some truly odd filmmaking, lurid and obsessive, as Ken Russell's films tend to be. It takes a lot of risks, something which is very welcome in contrast to the formulaic pablum of modern Hollywood.

It's essentially three stories. Kathleen Turner plays an uptight workaholic fashion executive who has some kind of psychosexual problem which she works out through another personality, a $50 streetwalker. Tony Perkins plays some kind of pervert/derelict who claims to be an ex-reverend, and utters sentences from both ends of his split personality, like "Lord, in thy mercy, yeah and verily, smite these douchebags." He isn't sure if he wants to sabe Turner's soul or use her body for recreational purposes. Finally, John Laughlin plays a suburban boy scout of a husband whose deteriorating marriage drives him into the arms of both parts of Kathleen Turner's personality. The movie is about the interaction between the three characters.

Each of the three characters has unique stylistic elements which are both visual and musical. When Turner's night personality, China Blue, is the focus, the movie uses her characteristic blue and rose pastel lighting, and plays her theme music in the background. Perkins gets harsh reds and yellows, and Onward Christian Soldiers. Laughlin gets natural lighting. So it all seems like some kind of adult version of Peter and the Friggin' Wolf. Oh, yeah, there's the oboe, it must be a cop. The director tops off all the theme music with a heaping helping of wah-wah mutes to punctuate the humorous incidents, like when Gilligan gets hit in the head with a cocoanut.

And then there's a completely unrelated fantasy. Russell apparently liked an unrelated idea which didn't fit it into the movie, but he used it anyway. Here's how: Laughlin and his wife are watching TV one night, and they are channel-surfing when this fantasy comes on. Cutlery falls into a swimming pool, and people dive in to get it. I couldn't figure out how that had any relation of any kind to the rest of the film.

You may hit the FF button once in a while when you watch this film, but you'll also watch some other parts with complete fascination. The movie was saved from being another "Lonely Lady" by two actors who played everything with their tongues deep in their cheeks. Both Perkins (all the time) and Russell (in her China Blue hooker guise) went for ultra high camp, and the movie is very entertaining when those characters are on screen. Hiring these two was a masterstroke, because they brought an obvious over-the-top glee to their roles, and that made the whole film dotty fun. To add to the general sense of craziness, both of those actors burst into song at one time or another. Turner sang "Onward Christian Soldiers" (poorly), and Perkins sang "Forget Your Troubles, C'mon Get Happy" (surprisingly well).

Kathleen Turner film clips (samples below)