Wayne (M*A*S*H) Rogers stars as an art forger who makes bank pawning off fake Picassos. When he’s not off hoodwinking clients with his business partner Patrick Macnee, he’s making time with a married woman (Cousin Cousine’s Marie-France Pisier). Things begin to get hairy when an art dealer (Samantha Eggar) gets wind of his scheme and blackmails him into taking on another forgery. He then has to outthink his new clients and double-cross them before they do it to him.
Rogers is miscast in the role of a suave forger, but he isn’t bad, all things considered. Macnee is fun to watch though and lends the film a touch of class and charm. Speaking of class, Melvyn Douglas also pops up in a cameo (it looks like they filmed his limo ride to the set). Lloyd Bochner is rather memorable too as Eggar’s sleazy henchman.
Hot Touch was directed by Roger (Barbarella) Vadim, and for a while, it seems like an ill fit for his filmography as much of the art forgery plot has the look and feel of an unsold television pilot. However, once Rogers’ gratuitous sex scene with Pisier comes around, it finally starts to feel like a Vadim film. Shortly thereafter, it goes back to feeling like a Made for TV movie. Pisier is a little weak as the love interest, and despite her big nude scene, she doesn’t really leave much of an impression. She also gets a nude chess scene that starts off well, but it’s much too short to really titillate.
The big con finale leaves something to be desired too. The build-up isn’t bad, but you should at least feel something when Rogers and company finally pull the wool over his new employers’ eyes. Luckily, Bochner’s eventual comeuppance is fairly gruesome, which at least ends things on a memorable note.
There was a decent idea here. However, with Vadim at the helm, you just expect a little bit more skin. If he had added two or three more love scenes of the same caliber as Pisier’s first scene, he might’ve had a winner on his hands. As it is, Hot Touch is rather cool to the touch.
AKA: The Hot Touch. AKA: Manhattan Gang.
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