About
“The funniest, liveliest, most exuberant film ever made in New Zealand”. So said critic Nicholas Reid, a year after Came a Hot Friday became 1985's biggest local hit. Though Billy T’s loony Mexican-Māori cowboy is beloved by fans, he is but one eccentric here among many — as two scheming conmen hit town, and encounter bookies, boozers, country hicks, nasty crim Marshall Napier, and Prince Tui Teka playing saxophone. Until the arrival of The Piano in 1993, Ian Mune and Dean Parker’s award-loaded adaptation remained NZ's third biggest local hit. Ian Pryor writes about the film here.
Key Cast & Crew
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Paul Leach behind a Panaflex camera, alongside director Ian Mune; from the set of the 1984 film Came a Hot Friday.
Kindly supplied by Onfilm.
Don Selwyn as the heavy weight local bookie Norm Cray in Came a Hot Friday. Cray has just been taken for over a thousand pounds in a scam involving rigged horse racing results.
© Mirage Films
The Tainuia Kid (Billy T James) has the heavyweight Sel Bishop (Marshall Napier), the operator of an illegal casino, inadvertently covered in Came a Hot Friday.
© Mirage Films
Billy T James (left) as the Tainuia Kid and Peter Bland as conman Wesley Pennington in Came a Hot Friday.
© Mirage Films
