Kaki Hunter

In Porky's (1981), Wendy seems brighter than every boy around her, which makes the film's habit of forgetting her particularly trying. Kaki Hunter plays her with dry humour and enough willingness to join in that she belongs in this crude company. Bob Clark's film gives its boys too little to distinguish them and most of its women less than that; Wendy is the conspicuous exception. Even so, Nancy Parsons remains our reason to stay with the first film, whose few good set pieces cannot excuse everything between them.

Hunter had already played Katharina in the drama Der Mädchenkrieg (1977) and taken the female lead opposite Meat Loaf in Roadie (1980). Her move into American films also included supporting work in Willie & Phil (1980) and Whose Life Is It Anyway? (1981). Wendy became her highest-profile role, continuing through Porky's Revenge (1985). We would not reduce her work to Wendy, but the school comedies make both her strengths and the frustrations of watching her easy to see.

In Porky's II: The Next Day (1983), Clark gives her a more substantial part, and the improvement is welcome. We laughed at Hunter's comic assurance: her timing makes the crude material feel lighter. The sequel lets women take a share of the humour, making its company more agreeable even when the jokes are familiar. Hunter has credited Clark with encouraging her to push further in this film, and the result gives us more reason to watch than another round of the boys' antics.

There is a limit to what that assurance can repair. The sequel repeats itself, and its weaker stretches feel padded; enjoying Hunter does not require us to pretend otherwise. What we value is how readily she makes a crude joke funny without making it feel more laboured, a useful skill in films already inclined to overdo things. Try the second film for her, with some tolerance for how much of the evening belongs to everyone else.