gavin6942 A sportswear designer leads a double life as a hooker named China Blue (Kathleen Turner). One of her clients, a man on the verge of divorce, decides he loves her and figures out who she is. He then begins wooing her, which she fights against since he was a client. Meanwhile a street preacher (Anthony Perkins) works the red light district trying to save souls.Allegedly, the male lead passed over Patrick Swayze and Jeff Bridges before landing on John Laughlin. Not that Laughlin does a bad job, but in retrospect this seems like an odd choice -- the movie would have had a more lasting impact with one of the other two.Although Kathleen Turner takes up most of the screen time, and really puts herself out there in these sexual situations, Perkins is the highlight of the film. He never shies away from pushing his own emotions, saying and acting in the most manic of manners. For an actor who made his name working with Hitchcock, he was never afraid to push the envelope in his career. Allegedly, the "poppers" we see him using on screen were real and he was indeed pumped up for much of the shoot.One aspect of the film that Ken Russell ought to be praised for is how strongly he suggests certain things but never shows them. For a film about American sexuality, there is surprisingly little nudity. Instead, he uses Japanese art to double for this, and presents an endless stream of suggestive -- but rarely explicit -- scenes. This is brilliant, and keeps the movie from becoming smut, despite its themes. Likewise, the violence is almost all psychological -- even a murder scene somewhat humorously uses a doll to avoid showing direct, human physical interaction. Russell and cinematographer Dick Bush do an excellent job of projecting character on to the actors through lighting. We have garish colors and neon lights for the scenes with China Blue, while the other scenes were more naturalistic light. There are clearly two worlds at play, and Kathleen Turner seamlessly goes from one to the other.On top of a beautiful 2K restoration, and the ability to watch either the cut or uncut version, the Arrow Video blu-ray comes packed with features. We have audio commentary with director Ken Russell and producer-screenwriter Barry Sandler, seven deleted/extended scenes with optional commentary by Sandler, a brand-new interview with Sandler, and a brand-new interview with composer Rick Wakeman. This is a must-own for any fan of Russell, Turner or especially Perkins.

crownofsprats Kathleen Turner plays a smoking sex-bomb of an NYC street hooker who goes by the name of China Blue ("the total package", as one john remarks). An unhappily married man develops a fascination with her after he eavesdrops on an encounter she has with an issue-ridden, demented preacher-type (Perkins) whose self-declared mission is to "save" China.In the wrong hands, this material could have been made into a boring thriller, with the preacher stalking his way towards a predictable finale. Or an overwrought marital drama, weighed down by absurd dialogue and the characters' utterly improbable decision-making. Or some lurid, booby C-grade sleaze-fest where the hooker plot is just an excuse to parade last month's centerfold in a half dozen sexy outfits. Luckily, we got Ken Russel, who somehow manages to not only balance all three in the same "total package", but lets them breathe with the genres' best and most outrageous excesses! Take the Preacher's "weapon of salvation" and the filthy sayings that get past his filter when he is praying, or the embarrassingly cheesy yet hilarious marriage bed conversations. Or pretty much anything that comes out of China Blue's mouth when she is "in character". And he does it all with a wink and a nod to you - the audience savvy enough to know not to take any of it seriously!It should be noted that this is a "fun" movie. If there is any takeaway here for thought, it's probably about men's fears and anxieties relating to sex, the feminine, and marriage. But try not to think too much about it, otherwise you run the risk of taking it a bit too seriously and you'll miss out on the real fun - all the "I can't believe he/she just said/did that!" bits (comprising a good half the movie), Kathleen Turner's passionate and, um, rousing performance (who could possibly deliver lines like that if they weren't having fun on the set!?), and the lurid, swanky atmosphere that is the magic of Ken Russell's creation.*** I also watched the scenes that were cut from the film - I had assumed they were cut because they were too racy or explicit, but the opposite is in fact true. The cut scenes were mostly from the domestic side of things: lots of wife-talk, an extended scene of the BBQ party, etc. They all deserved to be cut mercilessly because they either added nothing of value to the story or muddled the characters and plot to the point where the film would have been seriously flawed if were they allowed to stay in. In them, the confusion over this film's fate is visible, and I am very glad Russell did not choose to go there for the final version, instead maximizing on the glammy, schlocky sex schtick.

Claudio Carvalho The thirty year-old hard-worker Bobby Grady (John Laughlin) is married with two children with the frigid Amy Grady (Annie Potts) and their marriage is in crisis. Bobby is invited to work in the night shift for the owner of a fashion designer studio that believes that his talented designer Joanna Crane (Kathleen Turner), who is very introspective, is selling his designs to competitors. Bobby accepts the job to make money and please Amy with a bathtub and follows Joanna after hours.He discovers that she has a double life, working as a fifty-dollar hooker called China Blue in the red light district and practicing kinky sex with her clients to satisfy their fantasies. Bobby becomes obsessed by China Blue and when the true thief is found, he has sex with her and they have a crush on each other. Meanwhile the insane preacher Rev. Peter Shayne (Anthony Perkins) decides to save Joanna's soul and stalks her everywhere."Crimes of Passion" is one of the best and classiest "pre-AIDS" erotic-thriller of the 80's and among my favorite cult-movies ever. A youngster that sees this film in 2012 probably will not understand the behavior (and the beauty) of Kathleen Turner. But in 1981, the mesmerizing Kathleen Turner made her debut in the cinema industry with Lawrence Kasdan's film-noir "Body Heat" and this sexy actress became one of the most desirable women of the world. "Crimes of Passion" is her fifth movie and she is very sensual, sexy and gorgeous in the hands of the director Ken Russell. Anthony Perkins in the role of a mad preacher and the music score of Rick Wakeman complete this little masterpiece of the eroticism. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): "Crimes de Paixão" ("Crimes of Passion")

vldazzle This is one that I saved on my TiVo because it sounded interesting, but I didn't bother to watch it for months. Now that I did, I was drawn into the plot, and as I saw some of the interactions of the characters, I recognized the quirky style of Ken Russell. This is one of the reasons that he is one of my favorite directors. I had to come here to IMDb to verify that he is the director and now, after reading other reviews, I will NOT save the version that I have from TV, but will buy the best original cut. It is truly about how most people interact (except for Perkins character ;-) I could see this as a very erotic stimulus for many people in the romantic scenes, as it is for me.