The Hot Spot is a 1990 American neo-noir romantic thriller film directed by Dennis Hopper, based on the 1953 novel Hell Hath No Fury by Charles Williams, who also co-wrote the screenplay.
Harry Madox wanders into a small town in Texas as a used car salesman. In the summer heat, he falls in love with Gloria Harper, a demure young woman who works at a car dealership in the loan office. He notices Gloria’s feet and wooden shoes. Dolly Harshaw, who is married to the dealership owner, shamelessly flirts with Harry, telling him that she has a pair of shoes identical to Gloria’s. They soon begin a passionate affair.
Harry learns that all the employees of the local bank are volunteer firefighters and that the cameras in the bank are not working. After careful planning, he sets fire to a building across the street to lure them all away, and after they are gone, he robs a bank.
His conscience forces him to enter the burning building to rescue a homeless man trapped inside. Despite this, the town sheriff suspects Harry of the robbery and he is arrested. He learns that the money is useless because the serial number has been recorded. Dolly gives him an alibi and says she will sell him out unless he k.i.l.l.s her husband, whom she married for his money.
When he refuses, Dolly threatens to expose him. She ends up killing her husband herself by overstimulating his weak heart during a violent s.e.x.u,al encounter. Meanwhile, Harry discovers that Gloria is being blackmailed by a local criminal named Frank Sutton. Sutton obtains nude photos of Gloria and her best friend Irene Davey, after following them to the local swimming pool, after hearing that Irene had been having an affair with another woman, her teacher.
Irene commits suicide after being blackmailed, and Harry, Gloria’s 19-year-old lover, confronts Sutton over the photos. The heated conversation escalates into a fight, and Harry severely beats Sutton, but he continues to blackmail Gloria. Harry visits Sutton at home and finds him having s.e,x with a woman wearing identical fruit-shaped wooden shoes to Gloria’s.
When Harry and Sutton begin to fight, the stranger escapes, suffering facial injuries. Harry eventually kills Sutton in the ensuing struggle. He hides the stolen money to deflect suspicion from himself and disposes of the shoes, believing them to be Gloria’s.
He then told the police that Sutton, who had no job and few assets, had recently paid cash for a new car, making it appear that Sutton had robbed a bank. The serial numbers matched, and Harry was promised a large reward for information that helped the police “solve” the robbery. He planned to marry Gloria and take her to the Caribbean Islands.
