Hot Summer Night (film)

Hot Summer Night
Jay C. Flippen in film trailer
Directed by	David Friedkin
Produced by	Morton Fine
Written by	Morton Fine David Friedkin Edwin P. Hicks
Starring	Leslie Nielsen Colleen Miller Edward Andrews
Music by	André Previn
Cinematography	Harold J. Marzorati
Edited by	Ben Lewis
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date	February 15, 1957
Running time	86 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$355,000
Box office	$500,000

Hot Summer Night is a 1957 MGM crime film starring Leslie Nielsen, Colleen Miller, and Edward Andrews.

Out of work but on his honeymoon, Bill Partain, a newspaper reporter, reads about a bank robbery in Sedalia, Missouri pulled off by notorious criminal Tom Ellis and his gang. Having once interviewed Ellis's girlfriend Ruth Childers for a Kansas City paper, Partain figures an exclusive interview with Ellis could assure him of landing a new job.

Lying to his new wife Irene about where they are going, Bill drives them to a small Ozarks town where he believes Ruth is living. Townspeople are reluctant to help Bill locate her, and deputy Lou Follett warns him that almost everyone in the community is afraid of Ellis.

Bill finally finds Ruth, who remembers him favorably. She manages to arrange his being taken to Ellis by a young man named Kermit who is not in the gang, but sometimes works for him. Ellis grants him an interview, boasting of his crimes, to the consternation of gunman Elly Horn, who suddenly shoots both Ellis and Kermit. He also shoots his own gang member, Oren, by mistake.

Irene, left behind, is desperate to find her husband, who is now being held by Elly for a ransom of $50,000. She gets the address from Ruth, hitchhikes to Ellis's hideout and notifies the police, who arrive just in time to rescue Bill.

According to MGM records the film earned $250,000 in the US and Canada and $250,000 elsewhere resulting in a loss to the studio of $110,000.