12 Hot 'n' Sweaty Movie Summers

The Seven Year Itch (1955)

Temperature: So broiling it might be worth putting your undies in the fridge.

Sweat Factor: The prickle of guilt under the collar, as married ad man Richard Sherman (Tom Ewell) gets clammy thinking about The Girl who has just moved in upstairs.

Then again, she is Marilyn Monroe.

How To Cool Down: For starters, Marilyn needs to move away from that subway grate. Sure, she gets a load of air blasted into her nether regions...but it's hot air.

Falling Down (1993)

Temperature: Rising, especially now the air con's on the blink and pissed-off gun nut D-Fens (Michael Douglas) is gonna have to walk it.

Sweat Factor: Cool, calm D-Fens isn't used to being hot and bothered. But today, that starched shirt is going to need loosening if he's to avoid getting sodden.

How To Cool Down: Well, it's D-Fens' blood that is boiling, so he's going to have to find a quiet spot to chill. Not easy in the (literal) melting pot of overcrowded L.A.

Body Heat (1981)

Temperature: Muggy. Actually, dumb-ass lawyer Ned Racine (William Hurt) is probably heading for a mugging anyway, but that Florida sun can't be helping.

Sweat Factor: Glistening. Femme fatale Matty Walker (Kathleen Turner) has Ned exactly where she wants him - in the bedroom - and she's going to drain every last drop of... erm... common sense out of him to get her way.

How To Cool Down: Move to Siberia. Seriously, this gal is so nuclear the fall-out is probably global.

12 Angry Men (1957)

Temperature: Stifling: this poorly insulated jury room might as well be a greenhouse.

Sweat Factor: 11 out of 12 think this will be a quick and painless decision, so have collectively abandoned the deodorant. But there's always one who think he knows better, isn't there?

Humidity x tension = drip-drip-drip. It's a wonder the place doesn't flood.

How To Cool Down: They'd do well to check out heroic defender #8 (Henry Fonda). A man so cool he must have remembered his Right Guard.

Betty Blue (1986)

Temperature: As the original French title helpfully tells us, it's 37°2 in the morning.

Sweat Factor: Off the scale. In that heat, most folk would steer clear of exercise.

Not raunchy Gallic fuck-buddies Zorg (Jean-Hughes Anglade) and Betty (Beatrice Dalle), intent on soaking their sheets regardless.

How To Cool Down: Stop having sex. Although, with foxy Dalle gagging for it, that's easier said than done.

Do The Right Thing (1989)

Temperature: Dry - like a powderkeg. And, amidst the racial tension of multi-cultural Bedford-Stuyvesant, there are a lot of sparks.

Sweat Factor: On the hottest day of the year, the last thing anybody needs is aggro. But all it takes is a sticky situation involving the local pizzeria's Wall of Fame to blow this joint.

How To Cool Down: Busting open the hydrants isn't going to douse this explosion. It's going to take the full force of the fire brigade.

My Summer of Love (2004)

Temperature: Sultry and sensuous - and mercifully, out in the lush English countryside.

Sweat Factor: Ladies don't sweat; they glow.

But when Mona (Nathalie Press) feels the first pangs of lesbian lust for posh totty Tamsin (Emily Blunt), she's bound to get a little (ahem) damp.

How To Cool Down: Consider becoming a born-again Christian like Mona's brother Phil (Paddy Considine).

Dog Day Afternoon (1975)

Temperature: Stagnant and sluggish. Really not the best time to be robbing a bank.

Sweat Factor: It's bad enough that inept heisters Sonny (Al Pacino) and Sal (John Cazale) have chosen a heatwave for such a stressful activity.

Worse, with a media circus outside the bank, there's the added anxiety they'll find out Sonny's only doing the job to pay for his lover's sex-change op. Bit embarrassing.

How To Cool Down: Best ask hostage negotiator Moretti (Charles Durning) for some ice.

A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)

Temperature: It's so stale in swampy New Orleans the only way to stay fresh is to strip to your vest.

Sweat Factor: Delicate flower Blanche DuBois (Vivien Leigh) has never met a man like brutish brother-in-law Stanley Kowalski (Marlon Brando).

she's already clammy from alcoholism, so Stanley's sweaty presence really isn't going to do her sanity much good.

How To Cool Down: Head back to the streetcar station, and hop on the next departure to Frozentown.

Summer of Sam (1999)

Temperature: Feverish, as every journey through The Bronx risks bumping into neighbourhood serial killer Son of Sam.

Sweat Factor: You'd think a maniac with a .44 Caliber gunning down the locals during a heatwave would be incentive enough for local kids Vinny (John Leguizamo) and Ritchie (Adrien Brody) to avoid trouble.

Hell no: Vinny's banging every girl that moves and Ritchie's courting vigilante attention by dressing as a punk.

How To Cool Down: Usually, this would be bad advice, but under these circumstances... stay indoors .

The Hot Spot (1990)

Temperature: Combustible, as rugged drifter Harry Maddox (Don Johnson) tries his luck with not one but two local hotties (Jennifer Connelly and Virginia Madsen).

Sweat Factor: Accumulating. After all, with Johnson see-sawing between these two in the sweltering Texan heat, he's gonna end up looking like Ted Stryker at the end of Airplane!

How To Cool Down: Skinny-dipping looks like a good option, especially with Connelly in tow.

The Wackness (2008)

Temperature: A hazy high in mid-90s NYC.

Sweat Factor: No need to sweat it, bud. Simply light a bong and play some blissed-out early 90s hip-hop.

Even the romance between teenagers Luke (Josh Peck) and Stephanie (Olivia Thirlby) is suitably languid.

How To Cool Down: You're kidding. The last thing these stoners need is to get any more chilled.