by Hal Erickson
synopsis
Hot Summer Night is an out-of-the-ordinary crime yarn from the TV/radio production team of Morton Fine and David Friedkin. Unemployed journalist William Joel Pertain (Leslie Nielsen) hopes to reestablish himself by capitalizing on a recent wave of bank robberies. Pertain has a "lead" to the gang's leader Tom Ellis (Robert Wilke), and intends to parlay this into a hot news story. Instead, he places the lives of himself and his wife Irene (Colleen Miller) in dire peril. Of interest is the fact that the villain is portrayed with a modicum of sympathy, while the reporter comes off as a bit of a jerk.
characteristics
- Members Of The Press
- Bank Robbery
- Reporter
- Rescue
- Obsession
- Mob
- Robber
- Theft
- Yakuza
- Victim
- Thief
- Scoop [journalism]
- Mafia
- Hostage
- Heist
