Set in 1949, Came a Hot Friday is a fast-paced, all-around-good-time comic adventure. When a pair of bumbling con-men arrive in a country town, they see it as the perfect place to use their well-honed horse-racing scam. But this little town isn’t as sleepy as it looks, and when their scam is uncovered at the same time as the local billiards hall is set alight, it looks like their luck is running out. And through it all, a self-styled Maori/Mexican bandito, the Tainui Kid is watching.
Comic legend Billy T James makes great use of his trademark giggle as the Tainui Kid, probably the most memorable character in a film full of real characters.
Came a Hot Friday is based on the novel of the same name by Ronald Hugh Morrieson, described by Maurice Shadbolt as “by far the funniest book ever written by a New Zealander”.
“Came a Hot Friday carries no spare fat, but rattles along with the pace of the best American screwball comedies of the ‘30s.” – Nicholas Reid
English
New Zealand