Came a Hot Friday (1985)

Set in post-war (1949) rural New Zealand, this film traces the efforts of two con men to run a betting scam in a small town (Tainuea) already rife with illegal gambling corruption, and ... See full summary »

Director:

Ian Mune

Writers:

Ronald Hugh Morrieson (novel), Ian Mune,

Stars:

Peter Bland, Phillip Gordon, Michael Lawrence

7 wins.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Peter Bland	...	Wes Pennington
Phillip Gordon	...	Cyril Kidman
Michael Lawrence	...	Don Jackson
Billy T. James	...	The Tainuia Kid
Marshall Napier	...	Sel Bishop
Don Selwyn	...	Norm Cray
Marise Wipani	...	Esmerelda
Erna Larsen	...	Dinah
Philip Holder	...	Dick
Tricia Phillips	...	Claire
Bruce Allpress	...	Don's Dad
Michael Morrissey	...	Morrie
Roy Billing	...	Darkie Benson
Hemi Rapata	...	Kohi
Bridget Armstrong	...	Aunt Agg

Storyline

Set in post-war (1949) rural New Zealand, this film traces the efforts of two con men to run a betting scam in a small town (Tainuea) already rife with illegal gambling corruption, and eccentricity.

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Plot Keywords:

new zealand | scam | year 1949 | con artist | independent film | 

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Genres:

Comedy

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Country:

New Zealand

Language:

English

Release Date:

4 October 1985 (USA)

Also Known As:

Uomini, cavalli, scommesse e truffe

Filming Locations:

New Zealand

Company Credits

Production Co:

Mirage Films, New Zealand National Film Unit, Shaker Run Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

101 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Goofs

The brand of green plastic roofing visible above the saxophonist's balcony was not in use in the 1940s.

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Quotes

Wes Pennington: [singing while urinating into a river] Pour the devil's poison into God's cleansing river/It's of no further use to man when it's filtered through the liver!

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Connections

Featured in Cinema of Unease: A Personal Journey by Sam Neill (1995)

User Reviews

A salad made of The Sting, Jiri Menzel and Mel Brooks is hard of digestion

I haven't seen too many movies from New Zealand. Those that I've seen have been so good that I rarely miss a chance to see another one. Once Were Warriors, Whale Rider, Piano, Smash Palace, Rain, Starlight Hotel... very different movies, but each of them at least good, never a waste of time, offering things to think and discuss about, having messages...

But all what's good comes to end. Came a Good Friday is a movie that doesn't fit in almost anything I've said about NZ movies.

I like comedies. Maybe I've expected too much, but I've smiled three times and never opened my mouth for laughter.

The basic idea is manifestly similar to The Sting, but as Friday was made after a novel written before Hill made his movie the authors can't be blamed for stealing. Instead of that, we can be surprised that they decided to make it after The Sting became so famous and people can compare the movies.

Hill's plot takes place in a big American town, Mune's in New Zealand village, so the characters are very different. Interesting thing is that Hill's more than 2 hours long movie doesn't look so congested by characters, though settled in Chicago, while Mune seems to have need to show every single person who might live in this village. At least half of them were the burden that disabled better understanding and developing of the other half.

This insistence in offering a wide spectrum of different people that are rather typical (or cliché?) for such a milieu makes us remember Czechoslovakian cinematography from 60's and 70's, from Menzel to Chytilova, or even 90's and a bit more urban like Sverak, Steindler or Hrebejk. Their humor also wasn't loud, intense, it was in fact often bitter or sad. But the plot of their movies was deeply local and realistic, and didn't try to force us to laugh by a story that first like deja vu repeats funny idea from Sting, and later introduces a Maor character that would fit in Mel Brooks or Abrahams-Zucker movies and no way in early Forman. Swedish and Italian 70's and 80's movies also often depicted many characters in provincial cities, but usually concentrated on few of them (with mostly local people in major roles); these movies were frequently dramas with strong social ground and not pale comedies where both social and personal relations are used only as clichés.

Though I, except in extremely rare occasions, never quit watching a movie once I decide to see it, I was really tempted this time.