The Hot Spot

This movie starts off well; it quickly draws your attention with believable characters and settings and a gripping emotional situation. However, from here it goes downhill. The writer and director seem determined to turn conventional notions of how a movie should flow on its head. Normally, I find myself pleased when a movie departs from the norm and surprises me. The Hot Spot is the exception. It just left me with a bad taste in my mouth.

The Hot Spot is a very close adaptation of Charles Williams' Hell Hath No Fury, retitled to tie in with this film. (Why they had to change the title, I don't know.) The book is marvelous, one of the best 'crime pulps' of the fifties and as good as anything Jim Thompson ever wrote. The movie is curiously bloodless, never summoning the relentless drumbeat of fate the way the book so expertly does. You can read the book in about the time you can watch the movie, and though there's really nothing wrong with the film, it just doesn't satisfy.

I greatly enjoyed this film. It's pure entertainment from start to finish - with bad boy Don Johnson looking gorgeous, bad girl Virginia Madsen looking gorgeous and good girl Jennifer Connelly looking gorgeous. This film is worth watching for the eye candy alone - but as it turns out, it has a whole lot more going for it. There are twists and turns aplenty, lots of saucy dialog, an evil woman ankling around plotting, a dastardly villain doing slimy underhanded things, passionate making-out and even some topless scenes. It's hot in Texas, you can see the heat shimmering in the heavy air as Harry Maddox (Don Johnson), makes his way to a small town. Once there, he brazenly strolls over to a car lot and sells a customer, who was just about to leave, an automobile. George Harshaw (Jerry Hardin), is the owner of the car lot and he's short a salesman, so despite Harry's smart-mouthed attitude, he takes him on. Soon George's dissatisfied, loony, over-sexed and sexy, blond wife, Dolly (Virginia Madsen), is taking Harry on as well! The gal who really attracts Harry's attentions, however, is a troubled young woman, Gloria Harper (Jennifer Connelly). Jennifer Connelly's long, dark hair was to die for in this film. She looks very sweet and lovely - and has one heck of a figure! Gloria is in the slimy clutches of loser, Frank Sutton (William Sadler--who reminded me quite a lot of Jerry Reed). It's a while before Harry finds out just what Frank has on Gloria. In the meantime, Harry has plots of his own afoot - mainly robbing the town bank! The ending was especially surprising to me. Although why a woman would want to marry a man who hated her so much he'd like to kill her with his bare hands, I can't imagine, even a man as sexy and handsome as Don Johnson. 8 stars out of 10.

Dennis Hopper has been involved in movies for more than fifty years now. He is a man that has taken chances in his choices of roles, and as a director. "The Hot Spot", based on Nona Tyson's novel, and with a screen play by Charles Williams seems to be the kind of project that would attract him. In fact, he almost succeeds in making a remarkable movie, but he should have tried some badly needed editing to tighten up this tale about crime and revenge in Texas. "The Hot Spot" will reward fans of Mr. Hooper. He shows he can make a bland actor like Don Johnson appear better and give a somewhat interesting performance as Henry Madox, the drifter who appears out of nowhere and who we know is up to no good. Henry's good looks is a magnet for the two women in the story. One is the beautiful, and somewhat naive Gloria Harper, who works for the used car dealer, George Harshaw. George's wife, the sultry Dolly, also has plans for the hunk now working for her husband. It's clear this triangle will get into knowing one another, in more ways than social acquaintances. What Dennis Hopper accomplished in this film was to get excellent performances from his principal actors. Virginia Madsen, notably, is seen as the vamp that knows how to get what she wants all the time. Jennifer Connelly underplays Gloria Harper. Don Johnson is likable in one of the best things he has done in films. William Sadler is perfectly creepy as the black mailer. Veterans Jerry Hardin, Barry Corbin, and Jack Nance, are also good. The moody musical score by Jack Nitzche serves the film well. Dennis Hopper achieves in presenting this moody tale with his inspired direction, if only he could have trimmed it a little bit. "The Hot Spot" will not disappoint to fans of the genre, although a little patience is required.

This is a confusing, sweaty mess of a film, that tries to be a sexy story of southern seduction, and turns into nothing more then a tribute to the heat and humidity of the south. If not for the talent (and body) of Jennifer Connelly, this movie would be a total waste.

I always suspected that director Dennis Hopper is a "dirty old man" and this movie confirms that. "The Hot Spot" has quite a bit of erotic nudity and not fleeting scenes, but lots of it! The full chest shot of 19-yr-old Jennifer Connelly was quite remarkable! Don Johnson plays a smart drifter who can sells cars, rob banks, and get the women. His whole life is basically a series of scams. But he meets Jennifer Connelly's character and begins to really care. However, she is being blackmailed by the local scumbag while Johnson's character is being actively chased by his boss's sultry wife! He almost gets on top of it all... almost, when his world grips him by the gonads as never before. And everybody lives unhappily ever after! :-) Some have said the movie has no meaning, every one is bad. But that isn't true. Much like "The Talented Mr Ripley" does, this movie shows that dishonesty will ultimately be repaid, many times over, with grief. My favorite line was right before the best "fight scene" I think I've seen. Scumbag says to Johnson's character, "So you think you're the tough guy." Johnson's character replies, "No, you're the tough guy. I'm much worse than that." Then obviously trained as a fighter, proceeded to beat the living snot out of the scumbag, which was fully deserved. I had the movie on tape, so I watched that scene several times. All in all a good movie, and a credible job by director Hopper. It has become one of my guilty pleasures! Nov. 2013 edit: I saw it again, on DVD, and the movie holds up very well. I enjoyed it as much as the first viewing, maybe even more.

This movie is just wonderful. The direction by Hopper is top shelf and the sound track, wow! Don Johnson is excellent (believe it or not!) as the cool guy, passing through town who later decides he can easily pull off a clever bank robbery in the face of this backwards, sleepy town. Only problem is, he can't help but get tangled up in the bizarre, twisted lives of some of the town's ladies. Virginia Madsen gives an incredibly sexy performance and Jennifer Connelly lights up the screen with her exotic beauty. I can't stress enough how well made this movie is and how damn terrific the sound track is, featuring some great blues artists and also Miles Davis (one of the last recordings he worked on I believe). Please see this movie.

I tried to like this movie, but I couldn't. Like a stalled car, this movie kept turning over but never seemed to catch. Don Johnson's performance was as wooden as I have seen. Virginia Madsen valiantly struggled to inject some heart into this movie but her efforts were wasted. Jennifer Connelly was gorgeous but that is about all. Minor character casting was poor, and the premise that the Jerry-Reed-wanabe (Sutton) was a photographer...come on! The directing (Dennis Hopper) was good enough but the editor apparently had a rule that no scene could last more than five seconds.

This film is great. The atmosphere, heat, casting, setting, plot, you name it. Everyone in the film is sweating up to the eyeballs, constantly mopping their brows, with stains all over their clothes, looking very hot and tense indeed. The seeds for a necessary release are sown! And sure enough, the pressure reaches boiling point and everything erupts. I don't want to give too much away, nor can I be bothered writing a proper commentary but this film is BLEAK in it's honesty with respect to it's (secondary/primary?) plot - all ideals are shattered: romance and (true?) love, freedom (whatever that really is) and so on. Some would call this a cynical work, I'll call it realistic - Sod's Law applies as heavily in the movie as it does in real life. Go on Dennis, more of this please!!

THE HOT SPOT seems to take place in a town of whatever size is convenient at the moment. The town is so small that the volunteer firefighting force can't be mustered without leaving the bank unstaffed, but it's big enough to support a spacious strip joint with girls on four platforms at a time. The used car lot seems to need only one salesman, the boss, and a clerk, but it supports the boss and his wife in an enormous mansion. Oh yes, someone mentions that he's also in real estate. I wonder who his buyers are. The production looks as if it couldn't even afford enough extras to give the impression of a populace. A bigger problem, though, is the lead actors. It's hard to identify with Don Johnson in a part that should have gone to Dennis Hopper himself if only Hopper were younger. Hopper can draw our sympathy or fascination by giving his character a look of underlying fear or insanity. Don Johnson just looks smug, and so does Virginia Madsden. The best thing is the soundtrack, matching the minimalism of John Lee Hooker with the minimalism of Miles Davis. There were more black people on the soundtrack, by the way, than in the cast.