Hot Pepper

With so many movies out there numbering in the tens of thousands, and so many I want to watch, there's only so much time I'm willing to waste on a movie. And I've wasted more time than I care to think about watching movies not worth a kernel of popcorn. I didn't think "Hot Pepper" would be one of them because of Lupe Velez.

I really like Lupe Velez. I like her vigor, her vibe, her energy, and her roles. And I really like the diversity she brought for that era. Yet and still, "Hot Pepper" was hard to get into because of the two main characters: Harry Quirt (Edmund Lowe) and Jim Flagg (Victor McLaglen).

Harry and Jim were perhaps frenemies, or maybe they were genuine enemies, either way their relationship was a one-sided Tom & Jerry type of affair, and I was never a fan of Tom & Jerry. If you don't know what I mean: one individual always gets the better of the other individual no matter what. In this case Harry was always getting over on Jim. Jim was bigger and uglier which meant he was perfect for being made fun of because that's what we do as a society.

Jim was constantly getting worked over by Harry. Even after he was aware of being taking advantage of he'd spout out hot air and empty threats which, clearly, Harry took no stock in. Jim's gorilla act was so useless he would've been better off silently taking his licks like the sucker he was. Jim would make a threat and Harry would respond with another insult then continue to play Jim for the fool.

If Harry had played Jim once then was on the run for the rest of the movie, I could go for that because then there'd be some drama and it would mean Jim messed over the wrong man. Except Harry continued to trick or con Jim up until he conned him out of $10,000. After that I thought surely Harry would steer clear of Jim.

Nope. Harry was right back in Jim's face ignoring all of his macho talk and making a fool out of him again. I suppose it was supposed to be funny, but it was anything but.

To this point (a little over halfway) Lupe Velez had a small part in this flop. She was a stowaway on Jim Flagg's bootleg boat and she was looking to stay on U. S. soil. She would fight or flirt her way into staying if that's what it took. Lupe was great, the movie was not.

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