Body Heat

"As the temperature rises, the suspense begins."

1981 1h 53m EN

👍

7.0

SOLID

★7.0TMDB · 725

ThrillerCrime

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

During an extreme heatwave, a beautiful Florida woman and a seedy lawyer engage in an affair while plotting the murder of her rich husband.

“As the temperature rises, the suspense begins.”

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Cast

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

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Lawrence Kasdan
Writers: Lawrence Kasdan
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 7

ERA

Did you know

45 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Lawrence Kasdan, shot by Richard H. Kline. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by John Barry. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Carol Littleton shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 7

CAST

Did you know

William Hurt and Kathleen Turner and Richard Crenna carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 7

ERA

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "As the temperature rises, the suspense begins.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 7

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0082089 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Lawrence Kasdan directs. Richard H. Kline behind the camera. John Barry scores. Carol Littleton cuts. Profitable at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

145 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
2Directed by Lawrence Kasdan, shot by Richard H. Kline. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
3Original score by John Barry. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
4Editor Carol Littleton shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
5William Hurt and Kathleen Turner and Richard Crenna carry the top of the cast.
6Marketing tagline: "As the temperature rises, the suspense begins.".
7IMDB entry: tt0082089 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
8Classified under 10 themes, including "prison", "infidelity", "florida", "smoking".

The technical file

Cinematography: Richard H. Kline
Original score: John Barry
Editing: Carol Littleton
Production design: Bill Kenney
Costume design: Renié
Makeup / hair: Robert Sidell
Stunt coordinator: William H. Burton Sr.
Runtime: 113 min · 1h 53m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $9,000,000
Box office: $24,058,838
Return: 267% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Body Heat (1981)

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Lawrence Kasdan

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Community reviews

What people are saying

John Chard2019-08-21
★ 8/10
I hope you haven't done us in?‏ Warning: Spoilers Body Heat is written and directed by Lawrence Kasdan and stars William Hurt, Kathleen Turner, Richard Crenna, Ted Danson, J.A. Preston and Mickey Rourke. Music is scored by John Barry and cinematography by Richard H. Cline. Plot sees Hurt as small time Florida lawyer Ned Racine who falls in love and lust with smouldering babe Matty Walker (Turner). Trouble is is that she is married, and as the affair grows more torrid, the pair begin to hatch plans to kill the husband (Crenna) so as to be together and get very rich in the process... Well some can chide it for its debt to Double Indemnity, or even glance scornfully at Kasdan for using sex to sell his reinvention of amoral noirs of the 40s and 50s, but it stands tall and proud in my book of best neo-noirs produced. Causing quite a stir upon its release, Body Heat under Kasdan's watchful eye has most things right for a nod to the glory days of film noir. Male protagonist caught in a lusty web of deceit and murder, femme fatale so smouldering her skin literally does burn, twists and turns in the narrative, photography keeping it down low on light but expanding the colours for extra lurid effect, and a score that fuses seedy like jazz with low Bondian base strains that suddenly get attacked by a shrill to outline the hapless Racine's imploding panic. The dialogue, too, is devilish, especially when delivered so sensually by Turner's crafty honey, a lady bridging the gap between Lauren Bacall and Jessica Rabbit. Yep! Body Heat has it all going on. That was her special gift, she was relentless. Basically Kasdan has brought to life the suggestion involved of something like Double Indemnity, and set it in a sweltering modern day Florida. Free of any code restrictions, he unleashes the sex between the two principals and wraps his biting story around it. It's never sordid or done for the sake of selling tickets, it expertly realises the passion, trickery, and even genuine love? That's going on between Matty and Ned. Helps, too, that Turner and Hurt are terrific in performance and chemistry, while the support cast, courtesy of well thought out writing, really flesh out the plot. There's a problem for genre fans that stop it being a masterpiece all told, that of there being no shock factor come the finale reveal, but the slow boil to the outcome is positively gripping. While the visual views we get of Matty in the final frames leave a question tantalisingly hanging in the air... Slick and sexy, tricky and teetering, Body Heat stokes the fires of noir conventions of old with some style. 9/10

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