Body of evidence

An erotic thriller and murder mystery, “Body of evidence” is probably best remembered for the brouhaha surrounding the sado-masochistic sex games played out before the camera by actors Madonna and Willem Dafoe. Madonna plays a beautiful, sexually aggressive seductress named Rebecca who has a penchant for perilous peccadillos preferably conducted with wealthy men of poor heart condition. When one partner dies in the throes of passion, leaving Rebecca eight million dollars, she is charged with murder. Dafoe plays Frank Dulaney, an ambitious attorney who takes on the case, and despite being uncertain of Rebecca’s innocence, is soon drawn into an amorous relationship that belies his history as a loyal family man. A courtroom drama, not entirely dissimilar in structure to “Witness for the prosecution” (Hitchcock, 1957), this film was released in the wake of the hit “Basic instinct”, but despite matching its salaciousness (and silliness), failed to replicate its success at the box-office. Contains explicit sex scenes and situations but has quite predictably, a morally conservative outcome.