One of only a handful of ‘Adult’ features directed by John Hayes, and the ‘B’ feature on vinegar syndromes ‘peekarama’ set of Hayes work. ‘Hot lunch’ is a much more stable and traditional offering over some of his other works. The usual themes of group sex and voyeurism are present. But we have a much more refined offering vs his work on ‘Baby Rosemary’ 2 years prior.

And…for the record…its a bit of a misleading title and poster…they spend collectively about 10 minutes in a diner scenario, before the film COMPLETELY changes tact for the rest of the runtime…

The film follows ‘Andrew’, and opens with Andrew and his wife drifting into town to start afresh. They have no money and are crashing in a friends loft until Andrew can find a job to support the pair. His first outing? is to a dive bar restaurant offering ‘Hot Lunches’ that also doubles as a base for the local sex worker operations.

When things dont quite go to plan, Andrew finds himself fired on his first day as a dishwasher, and on returning home he finds his wife in bed with her two musician friends, who mock him for his attempt at dish washing going arwy.

Things get so bad that Andrews wife divorces him, and its here that the main ‘thrust’ of the movie really shapes up. Andrew is assigned a public defender who charges $75 an hour, when Andrew tells her he has $15 all together, and $4.50 of that is in his pocket right now. She tells him she can try and get him a job with a friend shes going to have a meeting with shortly.

The meeting goes well…a little too well infact. as Andrew is assigned a job selling encyclopedias to anyone who’ll buy them, but on the sly, Andrew is having sex with his potential customers in order to ‘seal the deal’. Andrews new boss catches on to his ‘practices’ and after sampling his wares for herself, she decides she can really run with the idea. quickly pushing her company up to ‘wall street’ levels. But…will Andrew ultimately be happy in a job where he’s trading his body for sales? well…keep watching and you’ll find out.

And…there really isnt that much to say about this one. It feels a lot more coherent than Hayes previous works pretty much across the board. Which in some ways is good, but in others does take away a bit of the sparkle that made things like ‘Baby Rosemary’ as ‘unique’ as it is.

The script for a starters actually has a full plot driven linear narrative, its a clean 3 act structure with reletively seamless transitions. The tone is largely light hearted, but they’re not afraid of confronting a little drama and introspection in the 3rd act which was nice. The characters get a little more depth than these kinds of films usually have, which was good to be stuck with for most of the runtime. It ends pretty satisfactorally and the dialogue (for the most part) is pretty solid, and even pretty funny in places. Though, the dialogue during the sex scenes is still honestly pretty painful. its SUPER cringey. and I know films from this era can go that way….But this really is bad.

The direction here definitely seems to have had more forethought put in. the non sexual scenes are competently structured and clearly have had some creative thought put into them. Its nothing ‘breathtaking’ they’re pretty basic scene structures. But theres been thought as to what to focus on, how long to hold in a particular shot type, WHY things are being focussed on. Which sounds basic, but when it comes to ‘adult’ cinema…its honestly a boon.

The sex scenes are much more stable and have definitely had more thought put into how they should operate. Given ‘Baby Rosemary’ was ultra shakey, or just shoved on a tripod in a mid wide for the full duration. This ACTUALLY has planned scene structuring, it gets up close to the cast when it needs to show intensity, you see facial reactions, it pulls back when it wants you to take in the atmoshphere. Its pretty solid, but not spectacular work truthfully.

The cine is also pretty solid, they’ve gone for a much softer lighting setup here, and they even experiement with soft coloured lighting for a scene or two, which I thought was a nice touch. it feels largely like a relaxed environment and given some of Hayes previous films have looked distinctly ill and floodlit, to get something softer and easier on the eye compositionally is a real win honestly.

The performances are a little hammy and over the top for the most part, but given its supposed to be largely a light hearted prodcution thats quite understandable. the sex scenes are professional, but as mentioned its a shame about the dialogue, both in terms of whats said, and how its said. If its improvised, it should have been blanked out, if it was planned, its awful.

All in all, this one was pretty solid, not a ‘must see’ by any stretch, but a good common example of 70s adult cinema, its fun, isnt taking itself too seriously and has enough of a plot that you’ll probably stick around past the naughty bits. soft recommended.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/hot-lunch-1978/