Erotic Thrillers: Part 1 – The Dawn of the Eighties
Tuesday, April 4, 2023 at 3:00PM 
Mainstream cinema feels more sexless than ever. Even at the height of the Hays Code's second coming, sex had a place of pride in Hollywood, often sublimated into insinuation to avoid censorship. There's art to horniness, to making the camera a conduit of erotic reverie or a purveyor of desire, want itself synthesized as form. Sexual films can also be rich texts, telling us much about the times when they were made, the culture that created them, and the audiences that either embraced or repudiated the movie. Whether prurient or intellectual, there are many ways to engage with erotic cinema, especially when carnal craving collides with violence, and annihilation that goes beyond the ecstasy of an orgasm.
Erotic Thrillers is the theme of one of the Criterion Channel's latest collections, released right in time for the You Must Remember This podcast's new season - "Erotic 90s". After tackling the 80s last year, Karina Longworth is heading into a new decade, and we're going along for the ride. For the next few weeks, we'll explore all films in the Criterion program, taking a journey from 1980 to 1996. Let's begin the adventure with a Hitchcockian riff full of fucked-up notions of gender, a postmodern neo-noir, and an unlikely message picture…
DRESSED TO KILL (1980) Brian De Palma
For a good part of his career, De Palma has asserted his style through twists on other filmmakers' work. Blow Out is famously an auditory spin on Antonioni's Blow Up, and, as we'll discover next week, Body Double is his take on Vertigo. Not that the movie which made Melanie Griffith a hot commodity in 1984 was the director's first foray into Hitchcockian cinema. The Master of Suspense's shadow looms large over De Palma's filmography, nowhere more evident than in Dressed to Kill, aka Psycho 2.0. Even the structure is a mirrored version of that horror masterpiece, cleaving the movie in two and killing off the apparent leading lady.
There's a clinical nature to how the director dissects this gambit, as if the story were secondary to the mechanical properties revealed by the midway change. Tone and context alter, and the camera itself adopts new strategies in a problematization of cheap thrills. In other words, it's two movies in one. Angie Dickinson's flick is explicit but uninterested in sex beyond it as a source of disappointment. Form is always above character, culminating in a breathless museum-set sequence where composition and movement, what is hidden by the framing and what is not, becomes the fundamental truth of Dressed to Kill.
Then there's Nancy Allen's movie, more character-driven and something like a response to the cold sleaze that came before. Though Dickinson has a limited role, there's a sense of personhood absent from the second half without her, resulting in a weird paradox. Frustrations pile up, an escalation of issues culminating in the mystery's solution and a bizarre last act that feels like watching an entire orchestra go tone-deaf just as they're about to finish a concert. Speaking of music, Pino Donaggio's score is genius stuff, a perfect aural match to the cinematography and cutting. If formal rigor gets you off, Dressed to Kill is perfect pornography.
BODY HEAT (1981) Lawrence Kasdan
The 1970s brought a wave of noir remakes that refused that label, claiming to be new, more faithful adaptions of novels by the likes of Raymond Chandler and James M. Cain. By the early 80s, it seemed Hollywood directors were ready to admit to remaking old classics, or, at least, Lawrence Kasdan was. Though Body Heat is technically credited as an original screenplay, its ties to Double Indemnity are impossible to miss. Not the novel, mind you, but the 1944 movie. Indeed, the entire thing is akin to an exercise in anti-nostalgia, reclaiming the past to transform it rather than preserve it in amber. Instead of pastiche, this is a postmodern noir.
A heatwave in the Florida summer, makes these bodies slick with sweat. When the temperature goes up, so does desire. When it's this hot, people try to kill each other as much as they try to fuck. Such is the setting of this story, about a small-town lawyer driven to murder by his lover, a midcentury femme fatale updated for the age of greed and a new world of female empowerment. This was William Hurt and Kathleen Turner's breakthrough (and her debut) and it's easy to see why audiences and critics alike fell for the two. They're smoking hot, whether clothed or not, delivering star-making performances of the highest caliber.
As playacted by these stars, sex is a fun, enrapturing experience. The two partners are equally exposed, to the camera and each other. Sure, all this humid passion leads our hero down a path of tragedy, but the one who leads him there need not be punished for her wrongdoing. In a final disruption, the throwback stylings highlight how much our resident temptress differs from her antecessors. When we look at Turner's Matty Walker, we see no monster. If anything, we see ourselves or, perchance an aspiration of what we want to be. After all, she gets the happy ending, and who doesn't love a happy ending?
CRIMES OF PASSION (1984) Ken Russell
From Kathleen Turner's big break, we go to a smaller success that only really found its audience on video. It was the height of the so-called "Vioporn" phenomenon when Ken Russell wrapped up his misadventure through the American film industry with the kind of picture only he could make. Particularly in its first seemingly unconnected passages, Crimes of Passion offers up a smorgasbord of audiovisual stimuli. The filmmakers force perceived luridness down the public's throat until every audience member is driven to a frenzy, not unlike the main characters. And what an odd trio they are.
Kathleen Turner is a fashion designer who moonlights as a prostitute going by China Blue. John Laughlin is a sad-sack everyman who finds himself investigating the mysterious woman. Finally, Anthony Perkins is a demented preacher driven to violence by his forbidden urges. Between peep shows and role-playing fantasies, between chintzy damask hotel rooms and boring suburban houses, these three lives become intertwined while the camera savors every scabrous detail. Nevertheless, the intent isn't just to shock. If anything, what we have before us is a preaching moment, a veritable message picture.
Only the message isn't attuned to conservative morality. Instead, Russell dives deep into the contradiction of an American culture that's both excited and frightened by sex, taking shots at religious hypocrisy as he goes. Flashes of erotic artwork caused many problems with the rating system and are, all on their own, a comment on censorship. But the sermon goes further than that, decrying all repression. Look within this candy-colored kaleidoscope of smut, and you'll find a story where those who accept their desires live fuller lives than those who deny them.
To indulge is to find salvation. To repress is to invite discord, even madness. Sex is a miracle that some will twist into sin through their diseased values. Watching Crimes of Passion is a bit of a mindfuck, for it repurposes righteousness to promote holy lust, eating itself whole like a cinematic ouroboros. Playing an inversion of the femme fatale model, Turner makes China Blue an erotic heroine for the ages. At the same time, Perkins reprises Norman Bates' psychosis with the added fuel of Christian zealotry and Russell's maximalist direction. Oh, if only Laughlin were as good. At least he's pretty to look at, especially when the clothes come off.
What films are you most excited to discover or revisit as we make our way through the Criterion Channel's Erotic Thrillers collection?
Reader Comments (16)
OMG, yaaasss! I miss Kathleen Turner on screen. And I've never seen Crimes of Passion, so I'll have to find it somewhere (don't have Criterion, but maybe I'll sign up for free trial?).
Oh, I grew up on erotic thrillers in the 1990s as a teenager. A lot of them were really good as that is a genre that needs to be resurrected but it's not likely due to today's extremely wussified culture.
Dressed to Kill is my favourite of these three as it's so damned entertaining,Body Heat looks good the cast is great but I always find it a bit of a bore.
Isn't Obsession (1976) De Palma's true Vertigo? And Body Double is a Rear Window/Dial M for Murder sandwich with a side of Vertigo?
Very curious about Crimes of Passion. I saw it when I was way too young.
One thing about Body Heat that rarely gets discussed is just how good Ted Danson is in it. He's a definite scene stealer.
"Body Heat" is one of my top 5 movies of all time. I watched it recently and it remains firmly there. Kathleen Turner is an enchantress, but William Hurt more than holds his own. It's sweaty and messy and perfect.
It is interesting that both actors have Ken Russell to thank for two of their best performances..."Altered States" for Hurt and "Crimes of Passion" for Turner. Turner connected to her role In "Crimes," perhaps more than any other in her brilliant career. She played so many iconic roles in the 80's, but this one was immersive. I totally agree with the criticism about John McLaughlin, but he did look good naked and it was Turner's show.
But "Body Heat" showed their talents at their perfection. Two gorgeous actors doing what they do. Hurt has an Oscar and Turner does not. But she has the memory that at the pinnacle of her career, there was nobody like her. Her talent cannot cannot be replicated. When she soared, she soared. And we are just in her world.
My favorite is Paul Verhoeven's The 4th Man, starring Jeroen Krabbé... second best would be, to me, de Palma's Body Double, and right after, Dressed to Kill
The hypocritical and puritan reaction to Blonde makes me even more grateful for this movies.
I so rarely have ever enjoyed a Ken Russell film, and Crimes of Passion was no exception, to the best of my recollection. I don't think I'll revisit it.
“Black Widow”, (1987), directed by Bob Rafelson, starring Debra Winger and Theresa Russell (and hey, James Hong is in this, added plus).
Theresa Russell is one of my favourites of the neo-noir femme fatales. She mates, she kills, she inherits the rich husband’s fortune.
A gloriously fun series of widows portrayed by Russell: the cool patrician East Coast blonde, the wild sexy Texas redhead, the demure but secretly passionate brunette intellectual, the charming rich party girl in Hawaii. “I used to think of it as my job - to be appealing”.
Also fun because it’s 2 women leads here, Winger and Russell. Winger plays a kind of prototype “cool girl”, a construction that also saddles her with the task of punishing subversive women. She’s the Department of Justice operative hot on the Black Widows trail, fascinated by the puzzle, the crime, the woman? Or a different viewpoint and realm of possibilities?
Critic Roger Ebert thought the movie should have leaned harder into the subversion rather than a safely commercial ending. Critic Jonathan Rosenbaum liked that the Russell character wasn’t given a backstory or psychological reason for her “deviance”.
It’s one of those movies that have you mentally re-writing it. I am completely convinced that the Black Widow eluded all efforts at containment and successfully continued her profession.
Mike -- i also LOOOOOVE Body Heat. Had the pleasure of writing about it here,
Off topic. Whatever happened to the almost there supporting actress article? I read an article about Deadwyler but she didn’t get the most votes in the poll. Quite strange.
Frank Zappa -- I admit I've never seen Obsession, but will do so before the next Erotic Thrillers write-up. Thank you for mentioning it.
McGill -- Thank you for the recommendation.
Max Brandt -- At the time I started working on Deadwyler's piece, she was in the lead. However, by the time of posting, De Leon had won. I'll write about her soon enough, but I've been taking a break from the Almost There series. After Drag Race S15 is over, I think I'll return to that weekly series. Thank you for your interest, and apologies for the delay.
Ken Russell created some of the best and most singular European films of the 60s and 70s that demand reassessment. He remains undervalued exactly because he defied expectations and challenged norms every single time.
@Frank Zappa: Genevieve Bujold is luminous in Obsession. And her line near the end, cracks your heart open.
@Jesus Alonso: I really liked The 4th Man, too. I think I screamed in the theatre. Even now, when I’m driving and I see a certain thing, I think of that movie.
I watched Crimes of Passion and find it a very flawed film, both too outre and too banal. And boy, those suburban scenes are a drag.
But that still you chose for the article is a thing of beauty!