Crimes of Passion (1984) Hollywood Hooker Neo Noir

"I never forget a face, especially when I've sat on it." (China Blue)

Directed by Ken Russell. 

Russell gained notoriety in 1969 with his third flick Woman in Love. I didn't see it when it was originally released. It was based on D. H. Lawrence's novel. I heard of the novel, but have never read it. I don't even know as I write what D. H. stands for. I've only seen Tommy once and Altered States also once but on cable TV long after their releases. 

So Crimes of Passion was the first Ken Russell film I first viewed with my wife in a theater in either Missoula or Ronan, Montana. It was the release version. I liked it the wife didn't. The male lead was forgettable. It would have been more advantageous to go with Jeff Bridges the first choice for the role of Bobby Grady, but there were salary disputes. Too bad. Kathleen Turner as China Blue was outrageous. She shoots from a nowhere  TV soap star to the lead. She gets top billing over Anthony Perkins. To digress a bit, I never saw him as a leading man either, WTF was up with that? lol. Who was doing casting in the 1960's he always looked neurotic to me and Psycho definitely type cast him forever for me. So for me I was watching all unknowns.

The next Russell Film we saw was Lair of the White Worm a fun Comedy / Horror flick. Recently within the last ten years I've seen Whore, and somewhere in between I caught Phantom of the Opera and Gothic. 

Anyway Russell strikes me as being in the same vein as the Coen Brothers, De Palma, John Waters, Tarantino, and Lynch, surreal and outrageous. 

Crimes of Passion was written by Barry Sandler. Cinematography was by Dick Bush, and the color pallet is heavy on reds and blues. 

Music was by Rick Wakeman, probably the only cast member I knew of. Wakeman was one of rock's greatest ever keyboardists, a member of the progressive rock band Yes, and he's also known for his contributions to some of David Bowie's classic songs. I even owned one Yes album, "Tales From Topographic Oceans." 

The films starts Kathleen Turner (Body Heat, Prizzi's Honor) as China Blue / Joanna Crane, Anthony Perkins (The Tin Star, Psycho, Is Paris Burning, Pretty Poison) as Reverend Peter Shayne, John Laughlin as Bobby Grady, Annie Potts as Amy Grady, Bruce Davison as Donny Hopper, Joseph Chapman as Walt Pierson, Norman Burton as Lou Bateman, Yvonne McCord as Sheila, Stephen Lee as Jerry, Louise Sorel as Claudia, Rick Wakeman as a photographer at the wedding ceremony. 

Hollywood-land

The tale starts in the middle of a sort of group sex therapy session. Bobby Grady is there because his wife Amy is dead in bed. 

John Laughlin as Bobby Grady

Hey, its the 1980s its Post Sexual Revolution. She is not with it, Bobby is getting frustrated. Juxtapose that with a cut to China Blue, a Hollywood Blvd. hooker in her crib at the Paradise Ise, a dive hotel. 

Kathleen Turner as China Blue

She is entertaining a client, sitting in a chair with her legs spread in gynecologist stirrups. Her John has his head between her legs. 

She is wearing a tiara and her signature "china blue" satin dress. There is a red Miss Liberty sash visible over one of her shoulders. She's reciting her winning "Miss Liberty" acceptance speech, in faux passionate, breathless, drivel while the john is apparently bestowing upon her one of her rewards, It's implied that apparently, (nothing is shown) he is lapping away at performing oral sex upon China Blue. The john stops looks up and tells China Blue that we are very "proud of you Miss Liberty. What do you plan to do with your scholarship money?"

"What do you plan to do with your scholarship money?"

China Blue [breathlessly}: I plan to study music Sir. 

John: Music do you say. What kind of instrument do you play? 

China Blue : I play the flute Sir, in honor of our forefathers who died at Concord and Lexington. Would you like to see how Miss Liberty plays the flute?

John: Oh, ho ho, yes! Very much.

The john scoops her up in his arms and lifts her up out of the chair. 

China Blue: First, I unzip the case, and then I take out the instrument, very, very, carefully, and very gently. And then I run my little hand all over it up and down and up and down. And then I fondle it so softly, so softly. 

The john lets China Blue down back onto her feet, and squats down, and places her hand on the obvious bulge in his pants. 

China Blue: Oh I love the feel of it, so smooth and firm. [China Blue un buttons the top of his jeans and runs his fly zipper down.] Oh, I love to wrap my fingers around it, and tenderly caress it. Then I like to lift it to my mouth, and wrap my lips around it. And then I wait for that sweet, sweet music to come pouring out.

Lol.

We cut away to more examples of the Sexual Revolution. A peep show stage surrounded by viewing booths. A naked woman is gyrating to a dirty sax grinding out a variation of the films main leitmotif.

Peep Show Sequence

We get a tracking shot of the audience behind the small rectangular viewing windows. Some men are staring trancelike, another is obviously beating himself off. A quick cut to the floor reveals pans with crumpled tissues, dropping into them, (wow what consideration, the "scumatoriums" on Times Square offered no such luxuries, how West Coast, how Hollywood). 

Anthony Perkins as Reverend Peter Shayne

One of the patrons watching from a window is the "Reverend" Peter Shayne. And just like one of the lines from an old Cheech and Chong Album, we get the immediate impression that  "he used to be fucked up on drugs, now he's fucked up on the Lord," lol. 

Cut back now to China Blue and her client. He throws his head back in ecstasy obviously climaxing. 

John: Oh ooooh!  Fucking incredible! Oh fuck, incredible! [looking down at China Blue] Oh, I knew it would be. You knew it would be too ha, ha, ha. [he's holding her head in both his hands.] China Blue gotta yea sure what did you expect kinda look on her face.

China Blue, with smeared lipstick, is still smiling at the John when she pushes his hands away and reaches over and shuts off the music.

John: We know each other so well. You know what I mean? What did you say your name was? 

China Blue [wiping her mouth with her hand]:  China Blue.

"China Blue"

John: No I mean your real name.

China Blue gets up from her squat, and goes over to a corner of the flop, where her makeup table, a sink and a shower are all clustered. She grabs at bottle of booze, and a glass, and pours herself a shot of J&B. 

She lifts the glass to her lips and gargles with with the scotch, and then spits it down the sink. I guess the taste cum goes down better with J&B.

The John speaks up again after China Blue's ritual is complete.

John: No I mean your real name.

China Blue: Miss Liberty. 

John: Well that was some game of yours Miss Liberty. 

China Blue: You wanted romance. 

John / Carl: Look ah, my name is Carl, and I just busted up with the wife.

China Blue: It's getting late babe. I gotta move. [China Blue bends over her makeup table and looking in her mirror, checks her makeup and uses a tissue to wipe her lips. She also removes her sash]. 

Carl moves up behind her trying to prolong the moment.

Carl: It's just so long since I got a hardon looking at someone. [Carl kisses China Blue's shoulder as she removes her tiara. We she her roll her eyes. She's heard all this before]. We were married twelve years. She just walked out on me. Just like that. I don't know what it was, that I did wrong. 

China Blue: Its like me my ex beat it out the door when he was tired of beating me.

Carl: Is that true?

China Blue: Does it matter?

Carl: Ya, well, see you around China Blue.

China Blue [looking after Carl: Oh, put the cash on the dresser. 

We watch in close up, China Blue popping a pill, which she washes down with another shot of J&B. It must be Post fellate-tal blues. How Noir of Her.

We cut back to the peep show the Rev Peter Shayne is sniffing amyl nitrite, working himself up into a frenzy as he stares at  the "live nude girl."  His eyes are bulging out behind his glasses as he fantasizes about the dancer laying dead on the floor in a pool of blood. 

He must have just blew his wad in his pants. Halleluiah! 

The Rev runs from the peep booth and out into the street. There on the sidewalk he places a short foot stool type of contraption on the concrete and steps up upon it. It's his de facto soap box. He opens up a tattered bible and starts preaching.

soapbox

preaching

Rev Peter Shayne: Dear God, the heathen are coming and have defiled the holy temple.... 

...and yada yada yada. Your typical religious gibberish. He goes on haranguing the passers by. It only momentarily halts when he spots China Blue. Her leitmotif plays. She is heading towards him. She's back out on the cement stroll, streetwalking her way through the crowd. .

♬

When China Blue is right in front of the Rev he calls out.

Rev Peter Shayne: You child. Victim of the night. I am the Reverend Peter Shayne and I know the pain the cripples you. I've been sent by the Lord to save you, and to rid the earth of that plague. I am his holy messenger. 

China Blue regards the Reverend, and listens to his spiel.

Rev Peter Shayne: Do You recognize me child? 

China Blue [taking a drag off her cigarette]: Sorry, I never forget a face, especially when I've sat on it. 

Rev Peter Shayne: Save your soul, whore!

China Blue: Save your money, shithead! 

Save your money, shithead! 

China Blue turns away and struts her stuff as she passes from sight down the street.

We cut to back to Bobby Grady pulling up to his electronic store in Glendale. He's catching up on some  nightwork for his business. It's situated in one of those strip shopping centers with a parking lot 

Bobby runs something like a Ma & Pa Radio Shack. He moonlights occasionally doing security installations. While there he shoots the shit with some buddies that stop by to say hi.

Meanwhile China Blue is still out walking the the Boulevard, trying to turn more tricks. We watch as she spots something and suddenly begins to act anxious. She starts to walk faster. 

It looks like someone is following her.

Is it her pimp? Does she have a stalker? We, of course, assume it's the crazy Rev from earlier. Eventually she is running back to the Paradise Isle Hotel

When she gets to her room and goes to flip on the lights it's still dark. The bulb seems to be is burnt out. The twist is it's another one of her regular johns playing out his fantasies. 

This one has a stalker / rapist fantasy, he faux attacks China Blue, she faux fights back. He pushes her on to the bed and reaches up and rips off her panties. He spreads he legs and  and screws her on the bed. 

with another souvenir for his collection

A happy customer clutching her panties as a souvenir. 

Cutting back to Bobby he's back at home to his unexciting life with his kids and his drag of a wife. His conversations trying to work things out with Amy go nowhere fast. 

Annie Potts as Amy Grady

Annie Potts who plays Amy really does the mousy brunette who has sexual hang ups with the resulting bad case of frigidity, really convincingly. 

The next day while at work Bobby gets a call at work from Lou Bateman owner of a fashion house. He's contacting Bobby (who did the security system for his business) and asks him to act as a sort of de facto private detective, and do a little surveillance work on an employee.  

Norman Burton as Lou Bateman,

Bateman wants him to tail one of his employees. Joanna Crane. Joanna is a good employee but is sort of standoffish with is other employees. Bateman thinks that she maybe she is selling clothing patterns to his rivals. He wants to know more about her, and to know if he can really trust her. Bobby agrees to do the job.

When Bobby, after tailing and surveilling Joanna for a few days, finds out what is really going on. it of course, all goes Noirsville.

Noirsville

This film is a real hoot. It's over the top and very entertaining. It reminds me of Barry Mahon's Hot Skin, Cold Cash (1965). That film was about one day in the life of Shelly, a Times Square prostitute, played by Victoria Astor. It's very similar to the hooking side of Crimes Of Passion's storyline.

Kathleen Turner is exceptional in her dual roles. Anthony Perkins is doing a religious psycho this go round. The other supporting actors are all spot on.  Rick Wakeman does a riff on Dvorak's  - New World Symphony, referencing obviously both America, and the new world of the Sexual Revolution. 

The gritty cinematography is great, a 9/10.

If Jeff Bridges would have starred as originally planned maybe a 10/10.

One of Turner's Best Performances

cassiewright-8952026 March 2020

It's hard to think of a mainstream actress in the 80's (or even now) signing on to play a role like China Blue, but Kathleen Turner had the guts to and it resulted in one of her finest performances to date.

Turner plays China Blue, a streetwise prostitute by night and a successful fashion designer by day. Her double life is in jeopardy of being revealed by a psychotic street preacher (Anthony Perkins at his nutty best) and a sexually unsatisfied suburban father (John Laughlin).

The film still shocks today with its sequences of sexually explicit dialogue and activities. There's still a ton of humor to keep you engaged, but its Turner's performance that keeps one riveted to the screen.

 10/10

A sleazy ball of fun!

johnnycourageous9 June 2001

Crimes of Passion is definitely my secret, guilty pleasure. Available uncut in this country, few films have managed to capture a sleazy, seedy feel without resorting to a sense of grottiness. This film is classy and well made, much the same as Ken Russell's later film, Whore (1991). It has the same sense of light-heartedness, and is actually well written.

Much of the dialogue is clever, witty, and bitingly effective. The performances are top notch - particularly Perkins as the maniacal priest whom is captivated by the street-smart, fashion-designer-cum-hooker Turner. The sexual scenes are bold, but not sexually explicit.

It is truly amazing to see Kathleen Turner in this film, as opposed to her performance as a fat, frumpy, conservative and highly religious middle-aged mother in the Virgin Suicides (1999). I cannot think of a character performance so diametrically opposite to the one in Crimes of Passion. I recommend you rent both films, and watch them back to back. It is sure to make your head spin, and perhaps even generate a sense of appreciation for the diversity of Turner's acting ability!

 10/10

Director Ken Russell shows that it is not possible to separate sex and religion !!!!

FilmCriticLalitRao7 April 2015

It is no secret that since the beginning of civilization sex and religion have always been able to maintain a unique "love hate" relationship with each other. The story of Adam and Eve is also viewed in the same context. Wherever there is religion, sex is likely to be found and vice versa. No religion has been able to free itself from the influence of sex. This has always been a trend and it would continue to be so in near future too. "Crimes of Passion" might turn out to be mild for many viewers according to today's standards but it was viewed as an absolutely shocking controversial film upon its initial release in 1984. 

Words would fail to describe actress Kathleen Turner's impeccable performances as 'China Blue'- an expensive hooker who is also leading a double life. Apart from some kinky sex scenes, China blue's character allows viewers to get a glimpse of tough lives faced by hookers. The religious side is presented by actor Anthony Perkins as a crazy priest whose only obsession seems to rescue china blue from damnation at all costs. He is able to succeed to a very large extent but a sudden event completely changes the course of action. 

Director Ken Russell has been honest with his depiction of people with dual identities. They have been presented as they are in real life without any embellishment. 'Crimes of Passion' has a lot of hilarious lines which denounce hypocrisy, falsehood and dishonesty. They are absolutely essential for viewers' comprehension in order to give them better ideas about a marriage which is on the verge of collapse due to lack of sex and how mean are societies to create and promote fallen women like "China Blue" for their selfish interests ?

 10/10

One Of Ken Russell's Best Films

ladymidath14 June 2017

Warning: Spoilers

Ken Russell+ music score by Rick Wakeman=brilliant film. Throw in the talents of Kathleen Turner, Anthony Perkins, John Laughlin and Annie Potts and you have a winner.

A fashion designer by day and a prostitute by night, Joanna Crane, who goes by the name of China Blue when she is turning tricks, is suspected of stealing designs is being followed by an unhappily married Bobby Grady.

China Blue aka Joanna is also being stalked by a street preacher, the Reverend Peter Shayne who develops an unhealthy obsession with being able to 'save' her.

As a relationship starts to bud between Bobby and Joanna, Peter Shayne becomes more and more frenzied in his attempts to convert Joanna.

Crimes Of Passion is a striking movie. The music which is perfect, adds to the sexually charged atmosphere as does the setting and lighting.

A thriller that does not fear to cross any boundary and is still able to include genuinely touching scenes, such as one where China Blue is hired to have sex with a man who is terminally ill.

The scenes between Bobby and his wife Amy are also tinged with sadness as you can see how very unhappy they both are together.

Despite the fine performances from the cast, this is definitely Anthony Perkin's movie. His portrayal of Peter Shayne is both comical and terrifying as the menacing and deranged preacher who is desperate to find salvation in saving China Blue, no matter what the cost.

Kathleen Turner also puts in a great performance as the tormented woman who leads two lives. My only gripe with Crimes Of Passion is that Joanna's backstory was never really explored. But that would be a gripping film within itself.

Ken Russell's film really explores the darker side of sexual attraction and obsession.

It does end on a lighter note though which gives the film a more optimistic feel that gives the film a bit of a lift.

Crimes Of Passion is not for everyone, some of the scenes are explicit, but it is worth checking out.