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Crimes of Passion (1984)
In British director Ken Russell's neon-lit, dark,
'guilty pleasure' cult tale and erotic thriller - with the tagline:
"Her name is China Blue. She is watched. She is worshipped. And,
she must remain a mystery":
- the main protagonist: a moonlighting, kinky LA prostitute
named China Blue (Kathleen Turner) - who at night wore a platinum
wig and a light-blue silky dress (and frequented the Paradise Isle
Hotel for tricks), and by day worked as a prim but workaholic sporting
fashion designer named Joanna Crane
- China Blue's entrance in the film: with male client
Carl (John G. Scanlon) who insisted that she role-play for him a
beauty pageant contestant named Miss Liberty 1984 as he was kneeling
between her spread-eagled legs. She euphemistically told about how
she could blow his "instrument" - and she tantalized him
with her sex-talk while unzipping his pants: "First I unzip
the case, and take out the instrument very carefully. I'm very gentle.
And then I run my little hand all over it. Up and down, and up and
down. And then I-I fondle it so softly, so softly. Hmm, I love the
look of it. Oh, I love the feel of it, so smooth and firm. Oh, I
love to wrap my fingers around it and tenderly caress it. Well, I
like to lift it to my mouth and wrap my lips around it. And then
I just wait for that sweet, sweet music to come pourin' out."
- her next client had a sexual fetish of pretending
to stalk and attack her, before "raping" her in her room
in the Paradise Isle Hotel; during sex, she imagined Japanese erotic
art prints or other exaggerated drawings of enlarged male genitals
Hooker China Blue (Kathleen Turner)
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One Client's Rape Fetish
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Japanese Erotic Art
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- also notable were the scenes with deranged, stalking
psychotic Reverend believing he was China Blue's savior - the perverse,
ranting, peeping-tom, self-proclaimed Reverend Peter Shayne (Anthony
Perkins) with strange erotic fantasies; he believed he was China
Blue's savior ("Save your soul, whore!").
- China Blue's description of her profession to the
Reverend, that was designed to completely fulfill any of her clients'
fantasies: "This is a fantasy business, Reverend. You can have
any truth you want....Why don't you f--k me? That'll save me...What
disease? I'm healthy as a horse. I'm fit as a fiddle and ready for
cock...I'm Cinderella, Cleopatra, Goldie Hawn, Eva Braun, I'm Little
Miss Muffin, I'm Pocahontas, I'm whoever you want me to be, Reverend"
- her shock when she discovered the Reverend's razor-tipped,
chrome-steel dildo (dubbed "Superman") in his doctor's
bag of sex toys
- art-time private investigator and security expert
Bobby Grady's (John Laughlin) escape from a dull 11-year marriage
to Amy (Annie Potts), who faked her orgasms, substituted by his intense,
obsessive, erotic relationship with China Blue; during her first
sexual encounter with him (for $50), she fantasy role-played as a
flight attendant: ("Good evening. Welcome to China Blue Airlines
Flight 69, non-stop service to Paradise. We'll be taking off shortly.
I'll be unbuckling your belt and seeing that big bird rise and rise,
finally settling into the comfort only this wide body can provide.
We're here to serve you. Please remember that although we may run
out of Pan Am coffee, we'll never run out of T-W-A-Tea"); she
sucked on his bare toe and then had sexual intercourse with him in
multiple positions (viewed as silhouettes behind a gauzy curtain),
while they were peeped upon by the Reverend
China Blue's S&M Sex Scene with Policeman
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- later in a dominatrix S & M scene (deleted
from some versions to avoid an X-rating), a policeman (Randall
Brady) was handcuffed to a bed and then brutalized and sodomized
with his own nightstick; he bled from his restrained wrists and
from her spiked stiletto heels
Twist Ending, Resulting in the Death of the Reverend
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- the twist ending in which China Blue was 'saved'
by the threatening Reverend involving a role-reversal (and costume-reversal);
the character wearing China Blue's dress (presumably Joanna) was
stabbed in the back by the razor-tipped dildo/vibrator. However,
the Reverend was wearing the China Blue dress and a wig, while
she was wearing the Reverend's outfit - a costume twist. She stabbed
him as he threatened to assault Grady (who had arrived to save
Joanna) with a pair of scissors; the Reverend's death were accompanied
with his parting words: "Goodbye, China Blue"
- the film's ending: Grady attended a marital therapy
group where he admitted he was in a new relationship with Joanna: "I'm
here tonight because I wanted to finally start telling the truth.
My wife and I, we have split up for good. That's right. Me, the Boy
Scout. I just never had the guts to admit the truth, that Amy and
I had just stopped loving each other. There's nobody to blame. That's
just what happened. Then, I met this woman, Joanna. She saved my
life. We're together now. I'm not sure if it's gonna work out. We
don't have a, a whole hell of a lot in common, other than the fact
that, that we both need help - and each other. The thing, you see,
that scared me the most during my marriage was just admitting that
I was scared and letting Amy down. Well, I can't pretend anymore.
I was scared s--tless to come back here. I told Joanna. And she took
me in her arms and she said, 'It's OK to be scared.' I felt stronger
and freer and more like a man than I've ever felt before in my life.
Then we f--ked our brains out."
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China Blue
(Kathleen Turner) as Miss Liberty 1984
Rev. Peter Shayne
(Anthony Hopkins)
The Reverend's Dildo: "Is this a Cruise Missile or
a Pershing?"
Grady's First Trick with China Blue
Grady's Concluding Confession to Therapy Group
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