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5.4/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 5.4/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. Hot Tamale remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
Honestly? Only if you have ten minutes to kill and a very high tolerance for old-fashioned noise. If you hate seeing animals get kicked around for comedy, you should probably skip this one immediately 🌵.
It is the kind of thing you watch when you are too tired to follow a real plot. It is basically just a series of events that happen near each other.
The whole thing is set in a version of Mexico that definitely only existed in a studio backlot. You have romance, you have guys being mean to each other, and you have so much music.
Harry Bailey and John Foster are the main faces here. They spend most of their time trying to out-macho each other, which gets old pretty fast.
I found myself wondering if they actually had a script or if they just told everyone to 'act spicy.' It feels very improvised in a way that is not always charming.
The plot mentions 'burro abuse' and yeah, they weren't kidding. The poor donkey in this movie has a terrible day.
It gets pulled, kicked, and yelled at constantly. It is meant to be funny, but it mostly just made me feel bad for the donkey 🫏.
There is one part where the donkey's face looks so genuinely fed up that I actually laughed. Not because the joke was good, but because the animal looked like it wanted to quit show business right then and there.
It reminded me a bit of the frantic energy in A Close Shave, but without the actual cleverness. Just lots of falling down.
The music is... constant. It never really stops to let the characters breathe.
It is that kind of tinny, early-era sound that starts to vibrate your teeth after a while. The rhythm is fine, I guess, but it feels like the movie is scared of silence.
The rivalry between the leads is your standard 'two guys want the same girl' trope. There is nothing new here, and they don't really have much chemistry with the lady in question anyway.
One of the guys wears a hat that is so large it almost becomes its own character. I spent three minutes just watching the hat wobble while he sang.
It is definitely more energetic than something like Shadows of the West, but that doesn't mean it's better. Just louder.
The editing is pretty choppy. Sometimes a character is on the left, then suddenly they are on the right and you missed how they got there.
I think they lost some footage or just didn't care about continuity. It adds to the fever dream feeling of the whole experience.
Is it a 'good' movie? Not really. Is it a fascinating look at what people thought was hilarious eighty years ago? Absolutely.
If you want a polished story, go watch something else. If you want to see a man fight a donkey while a band plays at 100mph, then Hot Tamale is your winner.
I wouldn't watch it twice. Once was plenty for my ears and my conscience. 🌮
IMDb 3.9
1929
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