Nine times out of 10, when you pick up an obscure movie you know nothing about based solely on its poster, you’re going to get burned. I expected as much when I bought a copy of Dom DeLuise’s 1979 directorial debut, Hot Stuff, based purely on its leggy illustration of Suzanne Pleshette. The fact that it also featured a drawing of Jerry Reed didn’t bode well for its overall quality, but it turns out, I had nothing to worry about.

The film is a slight affair that mostly takes place in one location, but the script (co-written by famed genre writer Donald E. Westlake) is filled with lively, funny characters brought fully to life by the talented cast. DeLuise, Reed and Pleshette star (along with The Electric Company regular Luis Avalos) as Florida cops assigned to a burglary and theft division whose spotty conviction record has placed it on the chopping block.

With just over a month to save their unit, they decide (with the blessing of their captain, Ossie Davis) to take over a local fencing warehouse and buy stolen goods while filming the perps through a two-way mirror. The mob soon gets involved, causing some amusing mayhem, but the majority of the running time is spent on the amusing array of criminals who come in to unload their stolen goods.

Hot Stuff definitely has an easy, unsophisticated feel that keeps it from rising to a particularly high level, but despite featuring a “thank you” to Hal Needham in its end credits, it still manages to earn some genuine laughs. The cast is great and Pleshette’s performance once again reminds the audience that Hollywood really fucked up by not allowing her to become the much bigger star she should have been. —Allan Mott

Buy it at Amazon.