Hot Spell (film)

Plot

Alma Duval is a Louisiana housewife planning a 45th birthday party for husband John Henry, known to all as Jack, who is carrying on with a much younger woman behind her back.

Jack picks an argument with eldest son Buddy, daring him to show some backbone, and takes the teenaged Billy out to play pool and drink beer, trying to make him become a man. No one even touches the birthday cake, which Alma and her neighbor Fan share the next day.

While her father dallies with Ruby, a 19-year-old girl, Virginia Duval becomes lovers for the first time with boyfriend Wyatt, a medical student, who then says he cannot marry her because he needs to be with someone of greater position and wealth.

Alma holds onto a belief that if she can move the family back to her hometown, everything will be all right. But she slaps Jack after discovering his affair. He decides to leave her and move to Florida, but he and Ruby are promptly killed in a car crash. Alma ultimately returns to her hometown, only to realize there is no true happiness to be found there, either.

Cast

Production

The screenplay for Hot Spell was developed from an unproduced play by Lonnie Coleman, Next of Kin, purchased by producer Hal Wallis in June 1956. Production occurred from January 23 to early March 1957, with filming in Pasadena and Chatsworth, California.

Release

Hot Spell had its premiere in New Orleans on May 21, 1958, and went into wide release in June.

Bosley Crowther of the New York Times gave it a moderately good review and singled out Booth, Quinn, and MacLaine for their portrayals.

In pop culture

During the 2010 film Valentine's Day, Estelle and Edgar Paddington (played by MacLaine and Héctor Elizondo) reunite at a showing of Hot Spell at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Edgar points to MacLaine on the screen and tells Jason Morris (played by Topher Grace), "that's my trifecta".