Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

HOT SUMMER IN BAREFOOT COUNTY is a great title for a very much nondescript 'moonshine' exploitation picture, a film that feels surprisingly tame given the genre and description. A city cop hunts for a redneck moonshine operation and chases women for most of the running time in unfunny scenes, but there's next to no nudity and few violent elements either. Troma's attempts to make this sound like a skin flick are close to false advertising. It's very boring, anyway, more romance-flavoured than anything, and feeling a little like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre without the horror.

Released by Troma from the `Preacherman Corporation", who were also responsible for the 1971 release Preacherman. Like its older cuzzin, Hot Summer... doles out fried white trash of the Southern variety, made for rubes by rubes without an ounce of so-fistication. Farmboy-turned-lawman from the Capital goes undercover in Hicksville to bust an undercover bootleggin' operation, run by a tough-talkin' mama and her halter-topped teensters. He falls.for the more homely of the three daughters and rediscovers his country roots, but runs into opposition from the local Three Stooges, and the yokel sheriffs out to make their own bust. Pained acting all round from the gals who all wear Levis cut off just below the navel (!), and the guys with guts hanging near their ankles. Yep, it shore is a pretty picture postcard from Pauline Hanson country, and about as funny as the one about the dog who limps into a Wild West saloon looking for the man who shot his paw...

Combination white-trash moonshiner romp/dramatic love story is pretty watchable considering it was probably produced on a pocket-change budget. Undercover cop is sent from the city to "Barefoot County" to investigate the illicit moonshine operation of a widow and her sexy daughters. Complications arise when the cop falls in love with one of the white lightnin' gals. Sort of fun, really...but nobody's ever going to call it "good"...it has that grainy, poorly lit quality that reminds one of grade school educational filmreels. 3.5/10

The film's title makes it sound like a porno but it's not even a sex comedy. Instead, Hot Summer in Barefoot County is about an official sent from a southern state to a small town to locate and arrest moonshiners. The moonshine though is coming from the farm of an old woman with three beautiful daughters. Almost anyone can guess what happens next but oddly, the film is very tame. It hardly even qualifies for a PG rating. What's more, the low budget is obvious in pretty much every shot and the acting is sooooo amateurish. This film was probably intended for the drive-in crowd but it's unlikely that it satisfied them, even in 1974.