Ken Russell directs Kathleen Turner, Anthony Perkins and John Laughlin in this erotic thriller where a frustrated investigator and kinky lay preacher are obsessed with a moonlighting prostitute called “China Blue.”

Sticky and stagey. Was quite looking forward to this but it is a hot mess. Feels almost theatrical, aiming for Brechtian but actually achieving pantomime. Perkins is stunt casting and his extreme Psycho retread is given short, almost pointless, shrift. Kathleen Turner looks hotter in her everyday androgynous looks rather than her hooker cosplay. The lead actor is laughably bad. Everyone is aiming for a heightened declarative style (the script is 50% monologue) but he really struggles with any kinda acting mode. Not erotic, not exciting, not insightful. Even as a camp car crash it is found wanting. Awful synth score. Russell’s colour pallette is at least memorable. The shitty sewer between art and trash where everything stinks.

3

Perfect Double Bill: Belle Du Jour (1967)

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We also do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/