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Perfect Friday
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Wikipedia article
'Perfect Friday' is a British bank heist film released in 1970, directed by Peter Hall. It stars Ursula Andress as Lady Britt Dorset, Stanley Baker as Mr Graham, David Warner as Lord Nicholas Dorset and T. P. McKenna as Smith.
Plot
Mr. Graham, an assistant bank manager who works in the West End of London, is dissatisfied with his boring life.
He meets Lady Britt Dorset, a spendthrift aristocrat. They devise a plan, along with her husband, Lord Nicholas Dorset, to steal 300,000 from the bank.
Their plan is to be enacted on the day that the manager plays golf. It involves Lord Dorset, posing as a bank inspector, substituting counterfeit money for real money which he places in Britt's deposit box.
The scheme almost fails when a real inspector arrives, but a second opportunity arises, and Lady Dorset absconds with the funds.
She fails to show up for the scheduled division of the loot, however, and Graham and Lord Dorset realize that they have been double crossed. Undaunted, they begin to plan another robbery for the following year.
Cast
* Stanley Baker as Mr. Graham
* Ursula Andress as Lady Britt Dorset
* David Warner as Lord Nicholas "Nick" Dorset
* Patience Collier as Nanny
* T. P. McKenna as Smith
* David Waller as Williams
* Joan Benham as Miss Welsh
* Julian Orchard as Thompson
* Trisha Mortimer as Janet
* Anne Tirard as Miss Marsh
* Johnny Briggs as Taxi Driver
* Fred Griffiths as Taxi Driver
* Sidney Jennings as Taxi Driver
* Hugh Halliday as Cyclist
* Max Faulkner as Strong Room Guard
* Carleton Hobbs as Elderly Peer
* Eric Longworth as House of Lords Messenger
* Brian Peck as Chauffeur
* Howard Lang as Bank Commissionaire
* Patrick Jordan as Bank Guard
* Malcolm Johns as Swiss Boy Friend
* Garfield Morgan as 1st Airport Official
* Derek Cox as 2nd Airport Official
* Barbara Ogilvie as Woman Airport Official
* Georgina Simpson as Stewardess
Production
Dimitri de Grunwald had set up a new production and distribution consortium, the International Film Consortium, a co op of independent film distributors throughout the world. They raised finance for a series of films produced by London Screenplays Ltd - 'The McMasters', 'Perfect Friday', 'The Virgin and the Gypsy', 'The Last Grenade', and 'Connecting Rooms'. De Grunwald described 'Perfect Friday's commercial prospects as "safe-ish"."A way out of films' financial quicksand?: Global co-op plans for Anouilh, Huxley, Lawrence" by Louise Sweeney. 'The Christian Science Monitor' 1 December 1969: 16.
The movie was produced by Stanley Baker who later said of it:
I think he [Peter Hall] will produce film work as interesting as what he's done on the stage... What I like about 'Perfect Friday' is that everybody lies to each other and everybody believes each other's lies. I don't know if the audience realises it, but every time the characters speak to each other, they're lying.Mary Blume, 'Stanley Baker Likes to Act', 'Los Angeles Times' 14 Aug 1971: a8.
Director Peter Hall said the sex scenes "were meant to make fun of all those sex films that steam up the West End.""SHOUTS & MURMURS: 'Unless I can play at my work, I'm useless' Peter Hall begins a new arts column" Hall, Peter. 'The Observer' [London] 10 Jan 1971: 22.
Release
Gene Siskel called the film "special entertainment.""The Movies: 'Perfect Friday'" Siskel, Gene. 'Chicago Tribune' 25 Jan 1971: b13 'The New York Times' said "Mr. Hall has made an intelligent and quietly funny film about three eccentrics, who are as attractively written as they are played."[https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9C03E0DF1F3EE034BC4952DFB767838B669EDE Review of film] at 'New York Times'
References
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