Body Heat

A hot summer in Florida. Ned Racine, a mediocre lawyer, meets Matty Walker, the wife of a wealthy businessman, and the affair goes out of control fast. The two plan to kill the husband. After the murder nothing goes as it should, and Ned slowly understands the plan was built against him. Matty disappears under a new identity and Ned takes the fall. Lawrence Kasdan wrote and directed in his first film as director. William Hurt plays Ned and Kathleen Turner plays Matty in her first film, with Richard Crenna, Ted Danson and Mickey Rourke in the cast. Its starting point is plain: the 1944 noir Double Indemnity. Kasdan keeps the template and inverts the ending. George Lucas served as uncredited executive producer. The lead was offered to Christopher Reeve first; when he declined it went to Hurt. It was shot mostly in Palm Beach County, Florida. On a 9 million dollar budget it took 24.1 million. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 96 percent. Roger Ebert put it on his ten best list for 1981. Who it is for: viewers who like the revival of noir in the eighties and scripts built on a trap. Who it is not for: anyone sensitive to the number and length of the sex scenes. The film builds most of its tension on them.