Body Heat

Body Heat
Theatrical release poster
Directed byLawrence Kasdan
Written byLawrence Kasdan
Produced byFred T. Gallo
Robert Grand
Starring
CinematographyRichard H. Kline
Edited byCarol Littleton
Music byJohn Barry
Production
company
Distributed byWarner Bros.
Release date
  • August 28, 1981 (1981-08-28) (United States)
Running time
113 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$9 million
Box office$24 million

Body Heat is a 1981 American neo-noir[1][2] erotic thriller film written and directed by Lawrence Kasdan in his directorial debut. It stars William Hurt and Kathleen Turner, featuring Richard Crenna, Ted Danson, J. A. Preston and Mickey Rourke. The film was inspired by the classic film noir Double Indemnity (1944), in turn based on the 1943 novel of the same name.

The film launched Turner's career—Empire magazine cited the film in 1995 when it named her one of the "100 Sexiest Stars in Film History".[3] The New York Times wrote in 2005 that, propelled by her "jaw-dropping movie debut [in] Body Heat ... she built a career on adventurousness and frank sexuality born of robust physicality".[4]

  1. ^ Silver, Alain; Ward, Elizabeth; eds. (1992). Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style (3rd ed.). Woodstock, New York: The Overlook Press. ISBN 0-87951-479-5
  2. ^ Schwartz, Ronald (2005). Neo-noir: The New Film Noir Style from Psycho to Collateral. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 37. ISBN 978-0-8108-5676-9.
  3. ^ "The 100 Sexiest Movie Stars: The Women". Empire. 1995. Archived from the original on August 3, 2020. Retrieved 2020-05-20. Alt URL
  4. ^ Green, Jesse (March 20, 2005). "Kathleen Turner Meets Her Monster". The New York Times. Retrieved 2011-08-30.