Back once again with more of the naughty stuff and what a doozy it is.
Quickly approaching 50 years old, Gail Palmer's Hot Summer in the City is an interesting piece to reflect on, replete with questionable views towards ethnicity and politics; mixing blaxploitation tropes with hardcore roughie action, the film offers a small glimpse and a filthy insight into a bygone era of filmmaking.

Starring: Lisa Baker, Duke Johnson, Shorty Roberts, Stitch Umbas, Coke Cain, and Black Orchid.

Named after The Lovin' Spoonful song and allegedly directed by "the first female director of triple x films" - Gail Palmer, under the pseudonymous tile "The Hare". I say "allegedly" because until recently it was a bit of a mystery as to who was truly behind the camera during the production of Hot Summer in the City, or any other Gail Palmer production. It appears that "The Hare" is something of a collaborative/collective pseudonym for Gail and her long term partner; porn king and strip club magnate, Harry Mohney, with the production being bankrolled by Harry and Gail writing the script (credited as T. James White) as well as stepping in to rally the cast and direct the action.

Hot Summer in the City was brought back into the cinematic consciousness after being name dropped and secretly screened by Quentin Tarantino at the Austin, Texas Alamo Drafthouse in 2005, with Tarantino stating that it's his favourite adult film. I wonder what the fate of Hot Summer would have been without the input from Mr. Q. T., would it likely have fallen by the wayside and been forgotten? Possibly. I know it cropped up on Vinegar Syndrome's streaming service, so elements must exist. Is the subject matter and content the reason why this hasn't had a newer disc release, or is it because the fanbase is so microscopic that it wouldn't be financially viable? Perhaps one day we'll get a nice shiny 4K of Hot Summer with all the bells and whistles one could possibly desire, packaged in a lovely slipcase inside of a larger slipbox, with a 250 page perfect bound book written by several contemporary film historians, and the accompanying novelisation. Yes please! While I'm admittedly playing Devil's satirist there was, incredibly, a novelisation released for Hot Summer, but good luck finding a copy as it appears to be extremely hard to find and/or comes with a hefty price tag!

For those with eagle-eyes you can spot an act of shameless self promotion, glimpsing the movie's title on a theatre marquee during the opening moments of Gail Palmer's Candy Goes to Hollywood (1979), and seconds later you can also spot the theatrical poster adorning a wall of a cinema lobby. And, what a poster it is with one of the most outlandish and obscene taglines you'll ever come across!




I wasn't aware of it when I came to write this, but after perusing other articles, blog posts, and forums about this movie I found that there is, or was, apparently some confusion over the lead "Lisa Baker", with several sources mistakenly mis-crediting the role to Playboy Playmate (of the year, 1967) of the same name. Admittedly, I was a bit confused as to why this was even an issue, as anybody with access to Google Images can very quickly and easily look-up and discern that the two chicks are entirely different people, and given that the film is entrenched in exploitation film marketing it shouldn't come as any surprise that the filmmakers would use the name of, or one similar to, someone at the forefront of the public consciousness. Nevertheless, it looks as though some people have gone down quite an investigative rabbit hole over the issue and why not, it can be a bit of fun to speculate and even more fun to definitively prove one way or the other!

A couple years ago, I gave a rundown of Hot Summer in the City to a guy at work, a different person to the Water Power "incident", and he came back to me a few days later saying it blew his mind. He'd never seen an old porno flick and it surpassed his expectations, I was genuinely surprised to hear how much he liked it.



So what's it about? A group of militant black activists, à la the Black Panthers, kidnap a young white girl named Debbie (Lisa Baker) and hold her hostage for several days. Debbie comes home and finds her mum getting bonked by two dudes, horrified and confused, she leaves home in the dead of night, crossing paths with the carload of Panthers. They snatch Debbie and take her to a ramshackle cabin, keeping her hostage and committing her to a perverse lifestyle of servitude, and further subject her to a gamut of sexual assaults. There's a few twists and turns along the way; race war plots conceived by The Man (Tony Rizzi), Jody's growing jealousy, and a development of Stockholm syndrome. Mercifully, Debbie survives her ordeal thanks to leader of the group Duke (Duke Johnson), who appears to harbour feelings of affection for the heroine, saving her at the last moment from a murderously jealous Jody (Black Orchid), and eventually letting her walk free.

The cast performances are atrocious, right across the board, with players appearing ambivalent to disinterested, it kind of adds to the whole seediness of the production, but it's really indicative of the shoestring budget and lack of any real talent. The cast stammer their way through line after line of stilted dialogue, whether intentionally or unintentionally, there are a few moments of hilarious dialogue, but it's mostly filled with racist vulgarity. I read that most of the guys struggled to maintain an erection while filming their scenes, it's blatantly obvious to any layman that they're super uncomfortable in front of the camera. It's reported that Gail had to drive back to Cinema X to try and hire a "stunt cock" to complete the shoot, and according to Gail, whilst shooting his scene with Black Orchid, it quickly became known that Stitch Umbas is actually a homosexual, admitting that his husband insisted he get a part in the movie because "he thought it would be really cool". It must also be stated that "Stitch" appears to be somewhat mentally handicapped, making the shenanigans in Hot Summer in the City all the more depraved and sordid.



"He's mine, I'll kill you if you touch him. It won't be fast like it'll be nice and easy, so you can feel it all the way down to white hell" - Jody (Black Orchid)

On a technical level Hot Summer is amateurish, scenes are shot with very little flair, or creativity - save for a few well-framed closeups; it's all very simplistic, and it's the sort of production where you'll likely spot a visible boom mic. The majority of the action all happens at the cabin, the exterior appears idyllic, but the interior (unlikely that's the same location) is thoroughly depressing. The walls are cheap plywood boards, it's ugly and claustrophobic, emphasising the despair and misery of Debby's plight. The grimness adds a distinct aesthetic to the film; memorable and uniquely "rough", lending a certain amount of credence to the plot, with the activists hiding from the law and prying eyes in a rundown grassroots hideout, and the hidden acts of debauchery they perpetrate.

One of the coolest things about Hot Summer in the City is the incredible (unlicensed) soundtrack with The Lovin' Spoonful song of the same name as a theme song, the rest is filled with likes of The Doors, The Beach Boys, The Supremes, The Four Tops, and The Shangri-Las. I'd imagine the soundtrack is the most prohibitive reason for any future releases on disc.



Hot Summer in the City is a lot of things: cheap, inept, scuzzy, rough, even gooey, and much like other hardcore roughies of the era, exhibits extremely questionable morals. Namely rape for the sake of entertainment, it appears to be such a prevalent plot device in '70s pornos that it almost seems "normalised"; I'm looking at you Pretty Peaches (1978), and while it can be argued that to some degree they can play into the notion of "rape fantasies", the utilisation of sexual assault, though fictitious, as a means/excuse to show explicit sex will always be morally questionable/reprehensible.
Hot Summer in the City is no exception, but if you're an avid film-nut who's got no qualms about subject matter, or one who already possesses a predilection for hardcore roughies from the Golden Age of Pornography, this can be a lot of fun. Boasting an insane soundtrack, a cast of quirky and unique characters, it's worthy of seeking out.

For a super in-depth and comprehensive article about Gail Palmer and the production of Hot Summer in the City, check out The Rialto Report.