The Hot Spot (1990) - Starring Virginia Madsen as Dolly Harshaw

The Hot Spot, might, just might, be the definitive Virginia Madsen film. Well, in my mind at least.

The Hot Spot is based on a the Charles Williams novel, Hell Hath No Fury from 1953. It’s a more relevant title for this story and one I wish they’d kept. The film is directed by Dennis Hopper.

Released in 1990, and rather deceptively billed as an erotic thriller in the marketing, The Hot Spot is a criminally under rated masterpiece. it’s more noir than it is erotic thriller. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t know the erotic side of the film was cranked up to eleven by the marketers, I mean, sex sells right?

Virginia Madsen was in her absolute prime when filming this movie and she was heavily used in the promotional materials. But for me, it’s more than that. When I think of “erotic thrillers” I think more of The Last Seduction or Basic Instinct. The Femme Fatale in those movies are the main character and using sex as a weapon almost, but that isn’t really the case here. Sure Virginia Madsen’s character is a sex bomb who seduces to get what she wants but it’s not about her, she’s more of a side character in Harry’s tale. That’s my take on it at least, I get it. But…

The Hot Spot tells the tale of Harry Madox (Don Johnson). He plays a drifter who arrives in the small Texan town of Landers. He quickly gets a job working for a local car dealership, Harshaws Motors, by impressing the owner, George Harshaw (Jerry Hardin) with his sales skills.

The locals are friendly enough but it’s the kind of town with secrets. Not that Harry particularly wants any part of those secrets, he’s got enough of his own.

On Harry’s first day of his new job Harry is sent to chase down a debt with Gloria (Jennifer Connelly), a man who goes by the name of Sutton (William Sadler) is late with his payments, again.

While they are at Suttons, Harry takes the chance to get to try and get to know Gloria a little better but she finds an excuse to leave Harry alone. When they meet up again Gloria tells Harry she’s found Sutton and that he’s paid her up.

But Harry isn’t a fool and when Sadler takes that moment to pull up and greet them it’s clear that he’s not seen Gloria and that she was lying about getting the money from him. His suspicions confirmed when they two slink off and whisper to each other outside of Harry’s hearing range.

Harry questions Gloria but it’s clear she wants to keep her secrets. She admits to lying but says she doesn’t want to talk about it.

When they get back to the dealership Harry makes his own excuses and makes his way to the local bank to open a bank account but he’s clearly not just there for that reason alone. He’s scoping the place out.
He grabs a bite to eat and heads back to the dealership, it’s then that he meets Dolly Harshaw (Virginia Madsen), the owners wife.

And Dolly, well Dolly is obviously a whole boat load of trouble. She introduces herself to Harry and explains she’s looking for George, when she learns he’s gone to lunch she asks Harry to help her move some old stuff she needs rid of. Dolly takes more than a passing interest in Harry and sets about doing her best to get to know him better and it’s not long before she’s finding any excuse she can to meet up with him again. When Harry makes a pass at her later on she acts outraged but is clearly interested.
Harry gets to know the residents of the town better over the next few weeks but it’s not long before we learn the real reason he’s there.

He enacts a plan to rob the local bank by setting fire to a nearby building. While the town is distracted by staring at the fire he makes his move. He almost makes a clean getaway but thanks to a blind man almost catching him the in the act suspicions are raised in his direction. Just when it looks like he might get caught he’s saved by an alibi from Dolly.

Dolly owns Harry now and she intends to collect.
From there it’s a game of cat and mouse between the two as the games they are playing get ever more dangerous and the two test each other to their limits.

I’ve watched this film countless times over the years, not just because of Virginia Madsen, it’s one of those films that never gets old and I think the more you watch it, the more you can appreciate it. It’s definitely changed for me as I got older, I remember the first time I watched it I thought it was “OK”, “kind of boring” etc – But now I watch it with relish and soak in all the atmosphere.

I said at the start that it might just be the definitive Virginia Madsen film, and I meant it. She smoulders on screen here and doesn’t miss a beat. Her Dolly Harshaw is her ultimate femme fatale. Sexy, smart, coniving, utterly ruthless and just believable enough so you can still have some doubt in her lies. Although, it’s unlikely you’d ever 100% trust her. For me, that’s one of the reasons the ending works so well.
It was an exercise in futility for me to try and capture this movie without resorting to the classic images you see of Virginia in this movie, I’ve tried my best not to be obvious and do things a little different, so don’t judge me on that.

I’d highly recommend this film if you’ve never seen it. Just don’t believe the erotica side of the hype, it’s a noir crime thriller through and through. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it has it’s, erotica moments, but they are (mostly) necessary for the characters and the atmosphere of the film.

Virginia Madsen has spoken on the record a few times about The Hot Spot, sometimes favourably, sometimes not. I don’t want to get into the whole debate here but to take a positive she credits the movie with giving her some confidence as an actress, in an interview with The Hollywood Interview she says;

“It was very surprising to me that people bought it! (laughs) It was funny, especially when I was being really super evil in a movie like The Hot Spot, and I just thought ‘My God, that was the most over-the-top, over-acting I’ve ever done in my life, and they bought it!’ It was an image and I didn’t really understand at the time, the power of that image, and how enormous an effect that would have on an audience. Dennis Hopper once told me “You don’t get it, because you’re too young. But in about ten years you’re going to understand, that you can’t really watch yourself be that type of person.” And he was absolutely right.”

Availability:

Great. Copies are more or less freely available on DVD in all Regions and it recently had a special edition remastered Blu-ray by Radiance Films. I even see plenty of copies on VHS on the auction sites.

Gallery: