Tony Mastroianni Review Collection
"Perfect Friday" gives crime British accent
Cleveland Press February 20, 1971
The movie is billed as Peter Hall's "Perfect Friday" and using the possessive form with the director's name sums up the picture's particular qualities.
"Perfect Friday" is a British crime caper film, a type which the British moviemakers made preeminently their own.
This one concerns the intricate plans to lift a huge fortune in British pounds from a bank right under the noses of the guards. It is the sort of plan that calls for split second timing and perfect coordination.
Hall plays with the time element himself in putting together his movie, using an intricate series of flashbacks and flash forwards, freeze frames and speeded action and yet making all of his tricks work in favor of the movie.
HE has to, since there is really little else to "Perfect Friday."
The chief schemer is Stanley Baker as a stuffy third assistant bank official. His two partners are an impoverished Lord (David Warner and the nobleman's wife Ursula Andress). The later flits from one man's bed to another, generally in the buff. While this has generally been Miss Andress' forte she oddly enough also emerges as a better actress than she has ever been.
EACH of the men plan to make off with both the money and Miss Andress and the lady has plans of her own as well. The eventual triple-cross is well heralded early on but the ending still manages some surprises.
"Perfect Friday" is not necessarily the best of its type. It could have used more story than it has. Maybe the's why it leans so heavily on Miss Andress.
