A Few Words About A few words about...™ Crimes of Passion -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[Robert Harris]

As a fan of Ken Russell's work, I was thrilled to learn that Crimes of Passion, his 1984 missive to 42nd street, nutty religious zealots, and kind-hearted hookers, working in the field for the "art" of it, was being released domestically by Arrow.

I surmised that if James White, their archivist, got his hands on the elements, that we would end up with a superb final result.

My hopes have been realized, and Arrow's Blu-ray, scanned from an IP, is a delightful affair. Containing two versions of the film, representing both the DC, as well as an unrated version, has the longer cut (by five minutes) with extra footage coming from video.

Crimes of Passion is occasionally electric in it's color palette, represented by a beautifully produced jacket with appropriate artwork, that will catch the eye of even the most casual peruser at Best Buy.

The Blu-ray is a gorgeous representation of the film, with grain appropriate to the stock and processing on a scene to scene basis. Color, densities, black levels all within very comfortable ranges.

A very brave performance by Kathleen Turner, and a head-spinning turn from Anthony Perkins as the delightful Rev. Shayne.

For those who have not yet experience this film, Arrow's Blu-ray is a wonderful way to remedy the situation.

One of the more interesting extras is an interview with screenwriter and producer, Barry Sandler.

Image - 5

Audio - 5

4k Up-rez - 5

Pass / Fail - Pass

Recommended

RAH

 

[Matt Hough]

I couldn't BELIEVE it when Kathleen Turner didn't get an Oscar nomination for this performance. One of the great overlooked performances by Academy members.

 

[bujaki]

The Academy voting for any category in Crimes of Passion? You've got to be kidding!

 

[Ruz-El]

I'm hoping Arrow get more of Russell's work. Would love to see them put out "Whore", "Lair of the White Worm" and others.

 

[JPCinema]

Ken was a wonderful man. It was an honor to have known him.

I look forward to the 2K restored Blu Ray from BFI of WOMEN IN LOVE being released August 22nd.

 

[Charles Smith]

Here's Russell and wife from, I believe, that same evening.

 

[Charles Smith]

Looking forward to Crimes of Passion. Haven't seen it since its first run in L.A., and I don't remember being as all-out thrilled with it as with The Devils and others, but the few memories I have of it, helped along by RAH's words, are enticing.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

It's late model Perkins with Russell doing what almost seems like a tribute to Mario Bava visually...or maybe it was just that I watched Blood and Black Lace prior to this and it sure felt like Russell had as well. This film sort of has everything and the kitchen sink in it...from tributes to music videos to a soapy daytime story to run along side the mostly nighttime seedy sex and stalker bits.

Is it a good movie? Not really, but it is interesting and both Turner and Perkins throw themselves at their roles. It is a film made for adults that deals with sex in a very open manner and seems to at least try to delve a bit into how both women and men feel about it. There are certainly many other films from Russell I would have liked to see make it to blu-ray first but this is a very nice package Arrow did for a sort of oddball and probably not very well loved entry on his resume.

I certainly give Arrow's treatment of the film an A but I would probably give the film itself a C+ as I don't really feel it gets to where it wants to go and probably takes too many detours along the way. This may not be Russell's fault as I can't really see any studio wanting to actually deal with this film and I would think there was no way this was ever going to appeal to a large audience and when they watched it they probably said "How the hell do we market this?"