Will Hay in Ask A Policeman

I had watched Ask A Policeman a few days back and tonight I watched a second Will Hay movie called Convict 99. I hadn't ever heard of him before I ran across these two British comedies over at the Internet Archive. Growing up in Canada meant I had a steady stream of British fare to watch on my TV. I grew to like the dry wit as well as some slapstick, though I do draw the line at Benny Hill. Still not a fan. (Six years later I have picked up, but not watched, the Complete Benny Hill.) There's some of both comedy styles in Ask A Policeman. Hay is more of a straight man while Graham Moffatt and Moore Marriott fill in the noisy activity around him.

 

In the pic on the right we have Moore, Hayes and Moffatt. In Ask A Policeman they play policemen who live in a small quiet town called Turnbotham Round and for the last ten years they have had no crime. Not that they went looking for any, either. The local Chief Constable plans to evaluate the need of a station, what with no crime. Will and his constables plan to create some crime but they suck as being criminals as much as they do at being coppers. They eventually stumble onto some real smuggling and there's a dumb but half way funny ending. I guess the story is pretty dumb in both movies but there are bits and pieces that I enjoyed, some of which made me laugh out loud. Convict 99 has Hayes get hired as a prison warden while he believes he's going to head a bad boys school. He accidentally gets tossed into the prison population for a few days. He decides to clean up the building and make it a nicer place for the criminals to stay in. Moffatt plays a goofy guard and Moore plays a squirrelly prisoner who's been unsuccessfully tunneling out of the prison for 40 years. They aren't great works of cinema but there's a larf to be had. AAP scores a 7.4 on the IMDb and C99 scores a 6.9, you'll have to be the judge if they deserve that. There are a nice bunch of character actors in the films. Glad I found them. Might watch them again in a few years. Who knows?

Addendum: It's 2016 and there is a nice Will Hay box set available on Amazon UK.

Comments

[l0b0t]

Huzzah for Will Hayes. I recently viewed Oh Mr. Porter, wherein Hayes, Moffat, & Moore are railroad employees at a run-down, haunted, Irish railway station. Hilarity ensues. Thanks (as always) for the reviews & viewing recommendations; I've enjoyed everything I've watched based on your blog postings.

[Garth Danielson]

Thanks for the feedback. It's always hard to know how other people will view the things I see, when I think I've got such a skewed vision sometimes.

[l0b0t]

You are most welcome. You've had me as a fan since you introduced me to Corner Gas. If you haven't seen it yet, may I recommend another Canadian sitcom - Little Mosque On The Prairie http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_mosque_on_the_prairie

[Elvis Kline]

Hi, nice article but he's called Will Hay,

there was a W Hayes but he was an American film censor around the same time.

[Garth]

I just didn't see it. I blame my bad proofreading skills and dyslexia.

[Garth]

Fixed Will's name.