Came a Hot Friday (1985)

User Rating:

6.7/10   

Director:

Ian Mune

Writers:

Ronald Hugh Morrieson (novel)
Ian Mune (written by)

Release Date:

4 October 1985 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

Set in post-war (1949) rural New Zealand, this film traces the efforts of two con men to run a betting...

Plot Keywords:

Independent Film | Based On Novel

Awards:

7 wins

Cast

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

Runtime:

101 min

Country:

New Zealand

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:12 | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

New Zealand

Company:

Mirage Films

Goofs:

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

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!

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in Meet the Feebles (1989)

Rip-Roaring Down Under Comedy!

This is a rollicking comic adventure set in 1949 against a background of horse-racing and crap games in a seedy backwater not unlike Woop Woop, Australia. Wes and his sidekick. Cyril are two down under confidence men who have been than successful in cheating bookies over hill and dale in New Zealand. The bad luck gets worse when they arrive in a dusty run down town in a rattle-trap junker of an automobile that is in critical need of a primer and paint-job after they arrive at the local gin-mill that offers dance and a so-called "casino." Before the dice stop rolling, Wes and Cyril find themselves at odds with local law enforcement and the casino boss. Just as Wes wins with a last toss of the "bones," the town constable shows up and raids the joint, the casino boss took off with the money which the boys try to recover later with a dim-witted overgrown lughead known as the "Tainula Kid," an absolute zero on the scale of one to ten. In and out of the picture we glimpse a character that appears to be a Mexican Vaquero, who comes into full view at the end of the motion picture, really an Aboriginal who believes he is Latin American and missing a few screws. The bad guy dies in an explosion and everyone lives happily ever after except for Wes and Cyril who have to motor to the next village for slim pickings. The "Tainula Kid" ends up with a shinny red rag-top (convertible) and the local girl while he buys his father a new artificial leg. Who would have expected such great comedy in New Zealand like this? Maybe in Australia? This is a must-rent-see video!