Summer Heat

7/29/2026

Based on the 1983 novel Here to Get My Baby Out of Jail by Louise Shivers, Michie Gleason’s Summer Heat (1987) succeeds wildly at establishing a suffocating, Depression-era tobacco farm aesthetic, but it fails to accurately map out the human psychology driving its plot.\ \ I enjoyed the film's pacing and look, it’s beautifully atmospheric, sun-drenched Southern setting, but the character development is undeniably weak. For a romantic thriller, there is a distinct lack of heat or tangible magnetism between Lori Singer's Roxy and Bruce Abbott's Jack. Without that undeniable, electric draw, Roxy’s decisions become entirely baffling to watch.\ \ She blows up her life, but the film never properly answers why. Did she do it for love? No. Was it lust? Maybe. Was it sheer, isolating boredom? Q