The aptly named BODY OF INFLUENCE is yet another Gregory Hippolyte hothouse excursion into softcore porn.
Dr. Jonathan Brooks (Nick Cassavetes) is a cultivated, no-nonsense Beverly HIlls shrink at the height of his profession; his patients are all rich and beautiful "frustrated wives of high-powered men." His personal life, which includes a lavish home and car and a successful lawyer Jennifer (Diana
Barton) as fiancee is equally enviable. A serial killer, whose toll stands at five, is loose in LA, and Brooks is helping his friend Harry Reams (Richard Roundtree), compiling a psychological profile of the murderer.
One day into Brooks's office walks Laura (Shannon Whirry), a shy young looker troubled by heavily sexual nightmares. Brooks is entranced by her, and soon, under hypnosis, Laura metamorphoses into the sultry, sexy Lana. They start a torrid affair, and over the next few days, Brooks's career and
life quickly start to come apart due to his obsession for Lana. He seduces patient Clarissa (Sandahl Bergman), who later retaliates by bringing a sexual misconduct suit against him; his receptionist Helen (Catherine Parks) quits because of his unethical behavior; and Jennifer drops him cold, after
Lana shows her a videotape of Clarissa's seduction--Brooks habitually records all his office sessions because of potential legal problems.
A biker tough (Don Swayze) confesses to Harry that he's the killer, saying that a woman drove him to it, and Brooks is soon in the same position: Lana is now blackmailing him, having stolen other videotapes. Brooks takes one of Lana's tapes to a local madam (Michelle Stafford) who identifies her
as a dangerous "S&M addicted submissive" who once worked for her. A day later Harry visits Brooks at his home and announces there's a sixth body, and Brooks confesses: he has killed Laura/Lana. Believing she is probably the guilty party, Harry declines to arrest Brooks, musing that "perhaps
tomorrow will be a better day for both of us."
Gregory (sometimes A. Gregory) Hippolyte has for years been churning out low-budget but smartly photographed softcore exercises (NIGHT RHYTHMS, CARNAL CRIMES, etc.) for the video and pay-cable markets, always thinly connected to a popular genre--in this case, the thriller. BODY OF INFLUENCE is
the purest distillation of his softcore abilities and intentions: David Schreiber's screenplay, a misbegotten brew of dimestore novel psychology and ludicrous dialogue, makes no sense whatsoever. There's hardly any story--Harry and his serial killer search might as well be in a separate
picture--to intervene between scenes of flesh, which Hippolyte, as usual, amply delivers. Of all similar directors, Hippolyte is perhaps the most shrewd: he never uses below-the-waist nudity in his glamorously soft-focus visuals, his men are almost always fully dressed during sex, and he never
realistically depicts the sex act(s), all of which effectively feeds into his (male) audience fantasies. (Needless to say, and most unconscionable in the 90s, he also never deals with the dangers of venereal disease or AIDS.)
Nick Cassavetes (SINS OF DESIRE) is actually quite sympathetic as the unfortunate hero, and, amongst his well-stacked but talent-deficient cast, Hippolyte unusually uses some "name" stars, including Roundtree, who has a few decent scenes, and Sandahl Bergman (CONAN THE BARBARIAN, RAW NERVE);
neither actor should be doing these at this point in their careers. As always in Hippolyte's films, his actors are dressed in fruity knock-off costumes, somewhere between Armani and Frederick's of Hollywood, by the delirious Delgado brothers. Hippolyte cuts costs by mostly filming on sets, which
gives his films a slightly claustrophobic feel that enhances the underlying fantasies. He's achieved a goal of sorts in BODY OF INFLUENCE: although it's detrimental to the story, there's not one exterior scene, apart from some static establishing shots, in the entire movie. (Extensive nudity,
sexual situations, profanity.)
