Kathleen Turner Channeling Kim Novak

I just finished watching Pal Joey on TCM today. This was my first time seeing this film and I loved it. I'd seen the lovely Rita Hayworth in Gilda, and appreciated how easily she made her character, Gilda, an iconic Hollywood sex symbol. She held her own in this film too, albeit playing an older rival to Sinatra's younger flame, Kim Novak.

But after seeing Novak's performance in Pal Joey, I couldn't help but be reminded of Kathleen Turner's acting in her early movies in the 1980's. It was amazing how much of Kim Novak's persona was reflected in Turner's character portrayals in Body Heat, and especially in Romancing the Stone. It was as if Turner studied Novak's every breathy inflection and sultry move, and then made them her own.

Now I'm not saying Kathleen Turner is a Kim Novak. But now having see more of Novak's earlier "body" of work, I'm convinced Turner used Novak as her muse and just went with it.