Tagged: The Hot Spot (1990)

The Hot Spot: Don Johnson’s Gray Linen Jacket and Studebaker

Don Johnson as Harry Madox in The Hot Spot

Don Johnson as Harry Madox in The Hot Spot (1990)

Vitals

Don Johnson as Harry Madox, drifter and used car salesman

Texas, Summer 1990

Film: The Hot Spot
Release Date: October 12, 1990
Director: Dennis Hopper
Costume Designer: Mary Kay Stolz

Background

I’m wrapping up this summer’s #CarWeek with the under-discussed neo-noir The Hot Spot, made among the wave of sweaty erotic crime dramas of the ’80s and ’90s exemplified by movies like Body Heat through Basic Instinct.

Don Johnson was nearing the end of his star-making tenure on Miami Vice when he was tapped for The Hot Spot‘s leading role as Harry Madox, an enigmatic drifter whose arrival in the quiet Texas berg of Landers sets forth a series of events straight out of James M. Cain or Jim Thompson’s poison pen.

The Hot Spot comes by its pulp credentials honestly, adapted from Charles Williams’ 1952 novel Hell Hath No Fury and originally intended to be adapted as a Robert Mitchum vehicle in the early ’60s. Though set in the present, The Hot Spot retains much of this retro style inspired by the era of its original conception, as seen in many of the costumes and cars, most specifically Harry’s black ’59 Studebaker Silver Hawk that he drives into town. Continue reading

The Hot Spot: Don Johnson’s Horizontal-Striped Shirt

Don Johnson and Virginia Madsen in The Hot Spot (1990)

Don Johnson and Virginia Madsen in The Hot Spot (1990)

Vitals

Don Johnson as Harry Madox, drifter and used car salesman

Texas, Summer 1990

Film: The Hot Spot
Release Date: October 12, 1990
Director: Dennis Hopper
Costume Designer: Mary Kay Stolz

Background

One of the benefits of writing BAMF Style the last eight years has been learning about movies from readers that may have otherwise never crossed by path. Thanks to suggestions from two readers, Peter and Cecil, I discovered The Hot Spot, a neo-noir in the pulp tradition with shades of The Postman Always Rings Twice and Jim Thompson’s hardboiled fiction. Continue reading