The heat wave bearing down on the United States has turned much of the eastern half of the country into a hellish furnace of death, despair and crisis. Today in New York the forecast calls for a high of 99, with the humidity pushing the heat index into triple digits with the likes of Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and scores of other towns along the Eastern Seaboard. But at least we're all in this together -- and with the movies, which are rich with tales of city folks sweating out the worst seasonal crap summer has to offer. Read on and recount nine of the best.
[In chronological order. Your mileage will no doubt vary; if so, let's hear about it below.]
1. The Seven-Year Itch (1955)
"A married man! Air conditioning!" Billy Wilder's adaptation of the Broadway hit gave us Marilyn Monroe's undies in the icebox and her dress billowing in the air-jets of the Lexington Avenue IRT. It was hardly the first or even the best film to attribute such implacably erotic influence to the sultry New York summer, but it was a milestone of the form. And apart from maybe Rear Window, it's one of the earliest of that form you can rent and/or buy pretty much anywhere.
2. 12 Angry Men (1957)
What should be a routine, open-and-shut murder-case deliberation turns into something a little more challenging thanks to Henry Fonda's lone dissenter -- and the sweltering heat inside the jury room where he and his 11 peers (led by Lee J. Cobb, below) deliberate. Sidney Lumet's feature debut is claustrophobic as a sweatbox and evocative enough to make a camel melt; regardless of the life-and-death implications, you almost can't blame Jack Warden's salesman for wanting to cut out early for the Yankees game (tropical rain storm or not).
3. Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
Nearly 20 years later, Lumet holed up (ahem, sorry) in a bank and caught another version of New York trapped in a slow boil of social unrest, sexual longing and economic duress. Necks are dabbed and brows are wiped, but the dream of a better life for a robber and his lover withstands even the most amplified intensity from the elements -- natural and man-made alike. For a while anyway. Also: No musical score or soundtrack! This was a hard time, people. At least Al Pacino can step out for a breeze, and there is a breeze. (Clip NSFW)
4. Heatwave (1982)
Travel with me to Kings Cross, Sydney, 1981, when a scorching Christmas season is interrupted by a developer's decidedly unfestive plans to replace a dingy clot of tenements with his upscale new complex called Eden. Enter a very young Judy Davis, whose radical activism (and sure, her supple, fiery, shrimp-throwing Aussie appeal) catches the eye of one of the project's developers -- and spurs an epidemic of malfeasance ripped right from the Australian headlines. I last saw this on cable years ago (and can't vouch for its availability on DVD), but director Phillip Noyce's depictions of oppressive urban heat -- particularly as endured by squatters in the still-iffy Kings Cross district -- would stick with anyone. The bad news: There's no evidence of the film on YouTube, either! Can I interest you in The Jam covering Martha and the Vandellas' "Heat Wave" on American Bandstand? I thought so!
5. Do the Right Thing (1989)
Compared to what would follow in his own career (see below), Spike Lee's Oscar-nominated third film plays like a weird kind of paean to the worst everything summer can throw at a neighborhood in a single day. There's romance (Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee are priceless, as is a particularly well-placed ice-cube on Rosie Perez's anatomy) camaraderie (two words: Robin Harris), bracing episodes of family bonding Annnnd of course there's a deadly race riot, too, but hey. Can't win 'em all. D, motherfucker, D! (Clip NSFW)
6. Barton Fink (1990)
The titular playwright thought he had it good by going to Hollywood from New York to write pictures for mogul Jack Lipnik (played by Michael Lerner, also withering). Instead, he leapt from the crucible of East Coast cafe society into the cauldron of West Coast megalomania, penned in a furnace of hotel that could very well be (hint: is) hell with a sweaty neighbor (John Goodman) who could be (hint: is) the devil incarnate. Perfect for the dogged A/C holdout in your life, unless it's you, in which case what is wrong with you? (Clip NSFW)
7. Falling Down (1993)
Stick around in L.A. for the story of a recently divorced and laid-off defense contractor (Michael Douglas) who decides to walk away from it all (literally, as evinced in the opening below) on the hottest day of the year. The racially, politically tinged rampage that follows is misunderstood to this day -- which doesn't mean Joel Schumacher's drama is an especially good film, but you'll feel oddly refreshed by the end, and not just because Douglas winds up taking a climactic swim.
8. Summer of Sam (1999)
Might have been the greatest urban heat-wave movie of all time were it not for someone leaving its script out to rot aromatically in the broiling summer sun. Spike Lee again does his damnedest to transport viewers to a fraught New York City just barely under the influence of imagination: Between the Blackout of '77, the Son of Sam on the loose, junkies at every turn and the general municipal upheaval of the day, just add mercury and you've got a naturally occurring fever dream in a can. Or you can go chew into a lit radiator coil, get the same effect and save yourself the two hours. (Clip NSFW)
9. A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints (2006)
Punk-turned-autodidact author/filmmaker Dito Montiel made his directing debut with this little bite of fire, featuring Shia LaBeouf (!), Channing Tatum (!!), Robert Downey Jr. (!!!) and an ensemble cast revisiting Montiel's youth in Astoria, Queens. The real smoldering is done on the streets, where packs of kids roam wild with bottles and bats, practically overdosing on raw nerve. Upstairs, meanwhile, Ma and Pa Montiel (Dianne Weist and Chazz Palminteri) roast in an apartment that puts the "temper" back in "temperature." But Montiel could be sweet as well! Sweat along to the weird improv chemistry between LaBeouf and Melonie Diaz as -- no kidding -- a young Rosario Dawson (!!!!).
[This is a revised version of a previously published Movieline story from July 2010.]