Crimes of Passion (film)

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For the 1957 film see: Crime of Passion.

Crimes of Passion
Theatrical Poster
Directed by	Ken Russell
Produced by	Barry Sandler
Written by	Barry Sandler
Starring	Kathleen Turner Anthony Perkins John Laughlin Annie Potts
Music by	Rick Wakeman
Cinematography	Dick Bush
Editing by	Brian Tagg
Distributed by	New World Pictures
Release date(s)	October 19, 1984
Running time	107 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Gross revenue	$2,900,000
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Crimes of Passion is a 1984 film directed by Ken Russell starring Kathleen Turner, Anthony Perkins, John Laughlin and Annie Potts. The film explores themes of sexuality, failed relationships, and mental illness.^[1]

[edit] Plot

Bobby Grady (John Laughlin) is an ordinary middle-class electronics store owner who occasionally moonlights doing surveillance work. He attends a group therapy session because his wife, Amy (Annie Potts), has lost interest in sex and he fears their marriage is in trouble.

Grady is soon approached by the owner of a fashion design house to spy on an employee, Joanna Crane (Kathleen Turner), whom he suspects of selling clothing patterns to his competitors. Grady discovers the fears of Crane's boss are unfounded, but Crane is moonlighting as a street prostitute using the name China Blue and wearing a wig and provocative clothing as a disguise.

Grady tells the designer there is nothing to his suspicions, but keeps quiet about Crane's double life. After having an erotic encounter with Crane in her China Blue persona, Grady decides to start seeing her professionally, and later, romantically. However, their involvement is complicated by his guilt and her intimacy issues — not to mention her clientele of regular patrons and their bizarre sexual fetishes. Among them is the "Reverend" Peter Shayne (Anthony Perkins), who alternately spends his time delivering soapbox sermons on the street, visiting peep shows while sniffing amyl nitrate, and patronizing prostitutes. Shayne has begun seeing China Blue often and declares a misguided need to "save" her. (When he says, "Save your soul, whore!", she replies, "Save your money, shithead.") Underscoring Shayne's contradictory nature is the cache of sex toys he carries in a small doctor's bag with his Bible.

Grady and Joanna's erotic encounters soon develop into genuine romantic feelings for each other. When Grady admits he may leave his wife and children, Joanna feels put-upon and depressed. She seeks solace in turning tricks because the encounters are not fraught with emotional entanglements. She dominates a young policeman in an S&M session, penetrating him with his nightstick, and endures a botched three-way in a limousine. A session with an older, dying man whose wife wants China Blue to give him sexual gratification one last time inspires Joanna to reveal her real (first) name to the couple, suggesting she is the proverbial "hooker with a heart of gold".

Shayne grows increasingly psychotic: he carries a sharpened metallic vibrator he nicknames "Superman" and starts stalking Joanna. He moves into a seedy motel nextdoor to her nighttime place of business and watches her activities through a peephole. He also sets up a shrine with candles and numerous photos of her. Sensing that he is mentally unhinged, Joanna says she no longer wishes to see him, but Shayne follows her home to her actual apartment. Once there, he begs her to kill him.

Grady decides to visit Joanna to tell her that he has left home. He hears shouting when he arrives at her apartment, so he breaks down her door to find who he thinks is Joanna cowering in terror. He approaches the person, not realizing it is actually Shayne in Joanna's China Blue disguise. Joanna, wearing Shayne's clothing, leaps from the shadows and stabs Shayne with the "Superman" vibrator before he can attack Grady with a large pair of scissors. Shayne dies, convinced that his sacrifice has "saved" them both.

The film ends with Grady addressing his group therapist about his new relationship with a woman named Joanna.