Body Heat (1981)

In the midst of a searing Florida heat wave, a woman persuades her lover, a small-town lawyer, to murder her rich husband.

Director:

Lawrence Kasdan

Writer:

Lawrence Kasdan

Stars:

William Hurt, Kathleen Turner, Richard Crenna

Nominated for 1 Golden Globe. Another 5 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
William Hurt	...	Ned Racine
Kathleen Turner	...	Matty Walker
Richard Crenna	...	Edmund Walker
Ted Danson	...	Peter Lowenstein
J.A. Preston	...	Oscar Grace
Mickey Rourke	...	Teddy Lewis
Kim Zimmer	...	Mary Ann
Jane Hallaren	...	Stella
Lanna Saunders	...	Roz Kraft
Carola McGuinness	...	Heather Kraft
Michael Ryan	...	Miles Hardin
Larry Marko	...	Judge Costanza
Deborah Lucchesi	...	Beverly
Lynn Hallowell	...	Angela
Thom Sharp	...	Michael Glenn (as Thom J. Sharp)

Storyline

Ned Racine is a seedy small town lawyer in Florida. During a searing heatwave he's picked up by married Matty Walker. A passionate affair commences but it isn't long before they realise the only thing standing in their way is Matty's rich husband Edmund. A plot hatches to kill him but will they pull it off?

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Plot Keywords:

femme fatale | fatal attraction | con | scantily clad female | utilization | 

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Taglines:

She taught him everything she knew - about passion and murder.

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Romance | Thriller

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

28 August 1981 (USA)

Also Known As:

Cuerpos ardientes

Filming Locations:

Lake Avenue, Lake Worth, Florida, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$564,593, 30 August 1981, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$24,058,838, 31 December 1981

Company Credits

Production Co:

The Ladd Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

113 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The movie's two leads, William Hurt and Kathleen Turner, and the film's writer-director Lawrence Kasdan, all re-teamed around seven years later to make The Accidental Tourist (1988). A number of other crew also worked on the two pictures.

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Goofs

At the end of the movie, as Ned thumbs through the yearbook, the way he flips through the pages is wrong. He looks at "Tyler" first, then flips the page forward for "Simpson". Since "S" comes before "T", he should have flipped the pages backwards to see the "Simpson" photo.

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Quotes

Edmund Walker: The guy came to us with a business proposition. We're always looking for opportunities, if the conditions are right. We're willing to take an occasional risk, if the downside isn't too steep. But this guy hadn't done his homework, he didn't know the bottom line. That's how I knew he was full of shit. You've got to know the bottom line. That's all that really counts. He didn't have the goods, this guy. He was like a lot of guys you run into - they want to get rich, they want to do it quick, they...
[...]

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Alternate Versions

CBS edited 5 minutes from this film for its 1984 network television premiere.

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Connections

Referenced in Independent Lens: Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005)

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Soundtracks

Feel Like a Number
(1978)
Music and Lyrics by Bob Seger (uncredited)
as Performed by Bob Seger
Courtesy of Capitol Records, Inc.

User Reviews

The heat is on.

Body Heat: 9 out of 10: Many successful movies lose their ability to shock over the years. After hundreds of copy cats Alien isn't as effective as when it first came out. Kramer vs. Kramer certainly isn't the shocking eye opener it once was.

Body Heat should suffer the same fate. It doesn't. Despite a hundred direct to video takes on the same story (six of them with the exact same title) the movie still works. In fact it works very well indeed.

Writer Lawrence Kasdan had just penned Raiders of the Lost Ark and Empire Strikes Back so it is a surprise he chooses noir for his first directing outing. (His next film was The Big Chill so this is one guy hard to pigeonhole) He both updates and in many ways upgrades the noir of the past.

By setting the movie in a Podunk Florida town he invokes John D Macdonald the way no Macdonald movie treatment has successfully done. His then unknown actors William Hurt and Kathleen Turner are pitch perfect.

This is a movie that really brings some new things to the table as it does some old things very well indeed. Like the best noir you are too involved to even begin to try to guess the next twist and turn.

Like Scorsese in Goodfellas or Huston in the Maltese Falcon Kasdan's directing is obviously very good yet his tricks remain hidden from view. Not a wasted shot and your television will sweat from all the heat generated.

Highly recommended to all fans of noir or simply fans of movies.