Ned Racine (played by William Hurt): “Maybe you shouldn't dress like that.”
Matty Walker (played by Kathleen Turner): “This is a blouse and a skirt. I don't know what you're talking about.”
Ned: “You shouldn't wear that body.”—Body Heat (1981), written and directed by Lawrence Kasdan
It’s that body, strolling outside on a hot, muggy summer night in Florida, that grabs the attention of seedy, incompetent small-time lawyer Racine. But it’s the voice coming from that lissome form that, like the sirens of ancient Greek literature, lures him to destruction in Body Heat, which premiered on this date in 1981.
“You’re not too smart, are you? I like that in a man,” coos married socialite Matty Walker to Racine. Most normal people, as soon as they hear a line like that, would probably regard that as a warning, thank the lady for a few minutes of beguiling company and be on their way.
Unless, that is, you’re a horndog that this siren could size up as a sucker from miles away. Or unless, like Racine, you can hear the infinite promise conjoined in the unconcealed contempt, all wrapped up in some vague mid-Atlantic accent that advertises places and adventures you’d love to imagine.
Kathleen Turner’s voice came by way of a nomadic upbringing as the daughter of an American diplomat, where she was not only exposed to different exotic accents (many of which show up in her own smoky tones) but also learned to adapt to endless situations. In other words, she learned to shift identities--providing great technical equipment for an actress, as well as, in this case, a bone-deep understanding of what Turner called her character’s “obsession” and “single-mindedness.”
The fevered, twisty relationship between Turner and William Hurt has always been the selling point of this tribute to classic cinema that now has become classic itself. But don’t miss the fine performances by a pre-Cheers Ted Danson as fellow attorney Peter Lowenstein (a role inexplicably rejected by Jeff Goldblum), J.A. Preston as shrewd but sorrowful detective Oscar Grace (“Everything is just a little askew; pretty soon people start thinking the old rules are no longer in effect"), and, in two scenes where he briefly walks off with the picture, a young and terrific Mickey Rourke as an arsonist who tries to warn the oblivious Racine about his fate. (In the case of the latter, see this YouTube excerpt.)
From the Seventies through today, Hollywood has repeatedly tried its hand at neo-film noir, but outside Chinatown, this might be the best reinvention of classics such as Double Indemnity or The Postman Always Rings Twice. It was the film debut of both director Lawrence Kasdan and star Turner, and, for all the success they had later on in that decade, in certain ways this marked the high point for both.
Kathleen Turner’s voice came by way of a nomadic upbringing as the daughter of an American diplomat, where she was not only exposed to different exotic accents (many of which show up in her own smoky tones) but also learned to adapt to endless situations. In other words, she learned to shift identities--providing great technical equipment for an actress, as well as, in this case, a bone-deep understanding of what Turner called her character’s “obsession” and “single-mindedness.”
The fevered, twisty relationship between Turner and William Hurt has always been the selling point of this tribute to classic cinema that now has become classic itself. But don’t miss the fine performances by a pre-Cheers Ted Danson as fellow attorney Peter Lowenstein (a role inexplicably rejected by Jeff Goldblum), J.A. Preston as shrewd but sorrowful detective Oscar Grace (“Everything is just a little askew; pretty soon people start thinking the old rules are no longer in effect"), and, in two scenes where he briefly walks off with the picture, a young and terrific Mickey Rourke as an arsonist who tries to warn the oblivious Racine about his fate. (In the case of the latter, see this YouTube excerpt.)
From the Seventies through today, Hollywood has repeatedly tried its hand at neo-film noir, but outside Chinatown, this might be the best reinvention of classics such as Double Indemnity or The Postman Always Rings Twice. It was the film debut of both director Lawrence Kasdan and star Turner, and, for all the success they had later on in that decade, in certain ways this marked the high point for both.
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