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Body Heat
During an extreme heatwave, a beautiful Florida woman and a seedy lawyer engage in an affair while plotting the murder of her rich husband.
1981 · Directed by Lawrence Kasdan · 113 min · Thriller · Crime · Screenplay in the scene database · 17 frames
Tagline
As the temperature rises, the suspense begins.
Plot
In sultry South Florida, womanizing low-rent lawyer Ned Racine begins an affair with Matty Walker, the young wife of shady businessman Edmund Walker. The affair becomes a consuming passion, but the two keep it secret. Matty tells Ned that she wants a divorce, but a prenuptial agreement would leave her without Edmund's fortune. When she wishes Edmund dead, Ned suggests murdering him. Matty says she wants to forge a new will, but Ned warns her that would attract suspicion.
Ned runs into Matty and Edmund at a restaurant. Matty introduces Ned as a lawyer who has been asking about buying the Walkers' home. The three have dinner during which Edmund states, after Matty briefly absents herself, that he would kill any man who was having an affair with his wife.
Ned then meets with an old client, arsonist/bombmaker Teddy Lewis, who builds him an incendiary device. Ned fabricates an alibi by traveling to Miami, where he checks into a hotel and then drives back home in the night. After Ned kills Edmund, he and Matty move the body to an abandoned building owned by the victim. Ned sets the bomb to destroy Edmund's body and mislead the police. Ned and Matty part and agree to have no contact until Matty takes possession of the estate.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Written by: Lawrence Kasdan
- Cinematography: Richard H. Kline
- Edited by: Carol Littleton
- Music: John Barry
- Production design: Bill Kenney
- Produced by: Fred T. Gallo
Cast
- William Hurt as Ned Racine
- Kathleen Turner as Matty Walker
- Richard Crenna as Edmund Walker
- Ted Danson as Peter Lowenstein
- J.A. Preston as Oscar Grace
- Mickey Rourke as Teddy Lewis
- Kim Zimmer as Mary Ann
- Jane Hallaren as Stella
- Lanna Saunders as Roz Kraft
- Carola McGuinness as Heather Kraft
Production
- Country: United States of America
- Language: English
- Studios: The Ladd Company
- Budget: $9,000,000
- Box office: $24,058,838
- Themes: prison, infidelity, florida, smoking, femme fatale, murder, no air conditioning, neo-noir, erotic thriller, heatwave
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