A Surplus of Capers

By JAY COCKS

Graham (Stanley Baker) is a rather stuffy British bank manager with the usual accouterments: conservative suit, sensible umbrella, requisite black bowler. Britt (Ursula Andress) has more than the usual accouterments, and she uses them to keep herself in creature comforts like sports cars and chic clothes. Her husband Nick (David Warner) is a jaded aristocrat who lives almost entirely on credit and his finely chiseled profile. He needs Britt, worldly goods and a lot of money, which gives him something in common with Graham, who has a foolproof plan to rob his bank and get all three. Graham enlists Nick's aid, and Britt spends a good deal of time in bed with each of them, flattering, cajoling and trying in her inimitable way to work out the best deal for herself. Dawns the day of the big robbery on a Perfect Friday, and there is a neat little surprise in store for everyone, you can be sure. Everyone, that is, except the resourceful Britt.

Yes, they still make movies like this. The question is why. Surely there is a considerable surplus of these caper epics, involving the intricate mechanics of some complicated robbery scheme and the assorted tensions and rivalries, professional or romantic, among the people who carry them through. Gambit, Topkapi, How to Steal a Millionthe list seems endless. But the genre is not, as Perfect Friday proves.

Director Peter Hall, who has successfully directed Pinter and Shakespeare onstage, gives the action an occasional jolt of adrenaline. Ursula Andress, whose role seems to consist entirely of turning inusually nakedis easy on the eyes and, for once, also on the credulity. The man who steals the show, if not the bank's money, is David Warner of England's Royal Shakespeare Company, who swoops and camps around in the perfect comic caricature of the decadent nobleman.

qedJay Cocks

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