Smokily sensual and genuinely erotic, CRIMINAL PASSION works better as an adult video than as a coherent psychological thriller. The film doesn't quite cut it as a JAGGED EDGE clone and treads flat footedly in TIGHTROPE territory, bogged down by confusing motivations, subplot congestion,
quasi-tough gal narration, and an inability to provide enough viable suspects to keep the whodunit game in a spin.
Curbing her darker side, Detective Melanie Hudson (Joan Severance) sublimates her lust for thrills by devoting herself to her career as a crimefighter. When a famous ballerina is slashed to death with a razor, Melanie insists she be assigned the case with her ex-boyfriend Detective Nathan
Leonard (Anthony John Denison). All gory clues point to a womanizing architect, Connor Ashcroft (John Allen Nelson), whose father, a U.S. senator, uses his FBI connections to steal evidence that incriminates his rebellious son. As Melanie investigates this lady killer, she is masochistically drawn
to his Casanova style despite the ethical conflict inherent in sleeping with a murder suspect. Detectives Monroe (Wolfgang Bodison) and Verutti (David Labiosa), who are also on the case, discover Connor's disgruntled ex-girlfriend Tracy Perry, a fiery sculptress with a violent history. While
Melanie sinks further under Connor's spell (in swimming pools and in elevators gliding to the top of half-built skyscrapers), Verutti is shot to death at Perry's studio when Nathan and he try to arrest her. But did Tracy pull the trigger? Melanie is accosted in her home by a crazed-with-jealousy
Tracy, whom she's forced to kill, closing the books on the case of the ballerina and four previously unsolved murders of women who dated Connor.
When Monroe discovers the fingerprints of Connor's live-in shrink on a shard of crime-scene glass, Connor's chauffeur retracts the alibi he'd provided for his boss. Nathan goes to the Ashcroft mansion, where Connor and Melanie are having sex. After the insolent playboy begins brandishing his
razor at her and fires at Nathan, Melanie realizes he's the serial slayer. It's apparent now that his therapist covered Connor's tracks and that Connor probably gunned down Verutti. Giving vent to her violent impulses, Melanie pumps her psychotic stud full of lead, one bullet for each victim.
Intriguing characterizations and erotic atmosphere enliven this derivative thriller, but they can't save the film from its own excesses. A thriller needs a pool of suspects, but CRIMINAL PASSION is too in love with the character of the irresistible love-machine killer to bother. And while
Melanie's moth-to-flame attraction to Connor is understandable, her character makes no sense at all. She's a rebel, she rides around late at night in questionable neighborhoods, she likes guys who bring a straight-edge razor to bed. But we need to know why, if the comparison with the outlaw
playboy is going to give the movie emotional ballast. Alternately spoiled and neglected by his father and possibly sexually molested by his mother, Connor may have assisted in his mother's suicide and then branched out into serial homicide later in life; overall, he's a far more interesting
character than the heroine, and that unbalances the movie. Flaunting their incredible physiques, Joan Severance and John Allen Nelson heat up the screen but can't quite arouse the movie's suspense mechanics. (Graphic violence, extreme profanity, extensive nudity, sexual situations.) leave a comment
