Perfect Friday

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.

Perfect Friday
Directed byPeter Hall
Produced byJack Smith
executive
Dimitri de Grunwald
Written byScott Forbes
Anthony Greville-Bell
Based onan original story by Scott Forbes
StarringUrsula Andress
Stanley Baker
David Warner
Music byJohn Dankworth
CinematographyAlan Hume
Edited byRex Pyke
Production
company
Sunnymede Film Productions
Distributed byLondon Screen (UK)
Chevron Pictures (USA)
Release date
  • 10 November 1970 (1970-11-10) (UK)
  • 23 December 1970 (1970-12-23) (US)
Running time
94 min.
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

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

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 prosects as "safe-ish".[1]

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.[2]

Director Peter Hall said the sex scenes "were meant to make fun of all those sex films that steam up the West End."[3]

Release

Gene Siskel called the film "special entertainment."[4] 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."[5]

References
  1. "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.
  2. Mary Blume, 'Stanley Baker Likes to Act', Los Angeles Times 14 Aug 1971: a8.
  3. "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.
  4. "The Movies: 'Perfect Friday'" Siskel, Gene. Chicago Tribune 25 Jan 1971: b13
  5. Review of film at New York Times
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