Hotwire

Year releasted: 1980

by Keith Phipps
June 13th, 2001

Reformed car thieves don't have it easy, but in a Deep South town ruled by evil identical twins with a vested interest in controlling the vehicle trade, they have it rougher than most. Ex-bandit John Terry learns just that when sheriff George Kennedy arrests him on trumped-up charges. Before long, the tough-talking, no-nonsense Kennedy turns Terry over to a lisping, dandified car dealer played, in a feat of camera trickery worthy of The Patty Duke Show, by George Kennedy. Employed as a repo man against his will by Kennedy's car dealership, Kajun Kar King, Terry is paired with the respectfully nicknamed Weasel (Strother Martin), a veteran thief with a lovable tendency to express his appreciation of the opposite sex in terms bordering on the pornographic. Despite the low pay, Terry learns to love teaming with Martin to reappropriate past-due cars, perhaps in part because of the energetic bluegrass music that always accompanies them as they drive away. Love, however, gets in the way of Terry's career when he falls for the provocatively dressed adopted daughter (Jean Sanders) of bald local pimp Lawrence Dobkin. But their secret romance hits the skids when Sheriff Kennedy informs Dobkin of the affair, forcing the latter to reveal his motives as less than altruistic. "I've been shopping you, shopping you, and shopping you for quite a while," Dobkin says to Sanders by way of explanation. "I've been waiting for just the right bid, and just the right buyer." That bidder soon arrives in the form of none other than lawman George Kennedy, hotly followed by Terry and Martin. After rescuing Sanders from the evildoers' den, they pay a visit to Kajun Kar King Kennedy, who promptly falls into a puddle of oil as only a former Oscar-winner can.