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Reviews
Body Heat (1981)
A well structured pastiche of the classic film noirs.
An average, sometimes slack lawyer (William Hurt) meets a woman called Maddy (Katheen Turner) one evening he has an immediate attraction to. They embark on a passionate affair, with Maddy suggesting that they plot to kill her husband (Richard Crenna) in order for them to be together and be more than comfortably off.
What on the surface appears like an updated remake of DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944) is more of a reference point and hangs heavily over the film. Kathleen Turner appears in her first feature following her role in a TV soap and some theatre acting and is perfect as the femme-fatale. Her hairstyle, velvet voice and even her sultry swagger deliberately recalls Lauren Bacall and Jane Greer in OUT OF THE PAST (1947), but especially Bacall rather than Stanwyck's character. This was her first feature and she very much became one of the great leading actresses of the decade and a star overnight.
This was also the feature debut as director for Lawrence Kasdan, who had already cut his teeth as the scriptwriter on two blockbusters, THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK (1980) and RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981) who came to the project with a good understanding of what he wanted. And, for the most part, it paid off.
Nevertheless, it is also a flawed film as comparisons with the aforementioned film noirs are to its detriment. It could almost verge on the pastiche and be a little over melodramatic at times, but still manages to steer clear of falling into that for the most part, thanks to Kasdan's direction. It was also marketed as an erotic thriller and was sold on its sultry Florida heat and sweaty bodies. The chemistry between Hurt and Turner, while hot, is nothing compared to the sparks between MacMurray and Stanwyck in DOUBLE INDEMNITY. A lot of that was due to the writing and and while Kasdan's writing had some humour and is fairly sharp, it was nothing like the aforementioned rat-a-tat-tat of Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler's writing in the classic noir. However, there are elements that gel it well with that noir thriller, not least of all John Barry's sweeping score with sultry jazz sections, only broken by Bob Seger's 'Feel Like a Number' mimed by mechanic hustler and crook Mickey Rourke in a relatively small role. The plot plays much on the heat - sweaty bodies, ceiling fans, the clink of ice in glass and repeated references to the heat, though the film was shot in an unseasonably cold Florida.
William Hurt was another actor who became quite the star in the 1980s and he coasts well in BODY HEAT. Although he had starred in a small handful of films, he too became a star overnight. Of course the plot twists and turns, especially towards its conclusion with a classic denouement that is a little cliched and lacking in subtelty. Again, Barry's music gives weight to these scenes. There are also some great support performances who became very much figures of the 80s, including Rourke, Ted Danson, as well as Hurt and Turner. It is also worth mentioning Richard Crenna who has a solid support performance as Turner's ruthless businessman husband.
What the film does have though is a great structure, is well crafted and put together making it one of the key thrillers of the early 1980s.