Will Hay worked for Gainsborough Pictures from 1935 to 1939 and they made 9 pictures. Will had made three pictures with Elstree Studios in 1934, Those Were The Days, Radio Parade of 1935 and Dandy Dick. I have seen the middle picture and have ordered the other two. There are 5 more films after the Gainsborough films and I'll get to those when I get copies of them.
Gainsborough started making films in 1924 and continued through 1950. In the 1920s they merged with Gaumont British, in the 1940s they were taken over by The Rank Organization, in 1950 they were shut down. If you're a classic film fan you might have come across some of their titles. Most of these seem to be owned by Studiocanal today.
Gainsborough had some name directors working for them, I know some of them, James Whale, Alfred Hitchcock, Walter Forde, Michael Powell, William Beaudine, Marcel Varnel, Raoul Walsh, Val Guest, Bernard Knowles, Ralph Smart, Terence Fisher, and Carol Reed.
VCI puts out the Will Hay Gainsborough films in 4 DVD sets. The first three volumes have 2 films per disc and the 4th volume has three films on one disc. There's a £12.99 British set that puts each film on it's own DVD but I haven't got that to compare. The VCI copies look fine for old 30s films. I got the VCI discs at Hamilton Books for $17.80 plus about a buck forty shipping (part of a larger order).
Boys Will Be Boys 1935 ◊ Directed by William Beaudine, written by Robert Edmunds, Will Hay and JB Morton.
Will Hay had become somewhat famous for his schoolmaster character in the 1920s, he even did a Royal Command Performance in 1925 before King George V and Queen Mary. He's a bumbling character who gets things wrong.
In BWBB Will plays a teacher at a prison who applies for the job of headmaster at a public school called Narkover. That's where JB Morton comes in, Beachcomber is his novel and his Narkover characters are what the characters in the film are based on. I'd never heard of that book and like so many books that get made into movies, I'll never read it at this stage.
The school is like St Trinian's for boys, bad boys, they gamble, piss about and cause trouble. Will kind of fits in, he likes to gamble and he's a bit of a boob. There's a valuable stolen necklace to spice things up. It gets worked into the climactic rugby match where the baddies are caught.
I found it fun. There's plenty of roughhousing, funny faces and comic bits, sprinkled with plenty of jokes.
Where There's A Will 1936 ◊ Directed by William Beaudine, story by Leslie Arliss and Sidney Gilliat, screenplay by Will Hay, Robert Edmunds and William Beaudine.
Will is a solicitor, he's got a failing practice, some baddie tricks him into the use of his office to rob the bank. The office is right over the bank. The police come and Will is right in the middle of their investigation, getting in the way.
It made me laugh and I'd seen it before. Most of these films are pretty much the same sort of thing. Plenty of jokes and a fair bit of physical comedy. Mistaken identity or assumptions are made. Things are broken. It's usually pretty laid back stuff with occasional bits of really great timing.
Windbag The Sailor 1936 ◊ Robert Stevenson wrote the original story with Leslie Arliss. Robert would go on to be the only director that got an Best Director Oscar nomination for directing a Disney movie. That movie was Mary Poppins, it was also selected to go into the Library of Congress collection. Robert started directing in 1932 and I've seen a few of his earlier movies. After a stint in TV he started directing Disney films in 1957 with Johnny Tremaine. He followed with Old Yeller, Darby O'Gill And The Little People and 17 of the best of the Disney live action films. Leslie is also a writer - director and his list of work is fairly good. The screenplay was written by Marriott Edgar, Stafford Dickens and Will Hay. The director is William Beaudine.
Will brags about his sailing experience in the pub but once he's put in charge of a ship it's chaos. He's joined by Moore Marriott and Graham Moffatt for the first time. They would make a half a dozen pictures together. Will was picked by the shipping company because of his lack of experience. They've sent him out in a poorly maintained ship, hoping it will sink so they can collect the insurance. There's plenty of noise, running about and nautical humor. There are even some south sea islanders to get in trouble with. Luckily, the battery powered radio helps out. Of course the ship doesn't sink, Will's incompetence brings it home, and the crooks are unmasked. There's usually a happy ending for Will and pals.
Good Morning, Boys 1937 ◊ Marcel Varnel is the director of this one, it was his first for Will, he would go onto direct 8 more movies for Will and several for George Formby. Anthony Kimmins wrote the original story. Val Guest, Leslie Arliss and Marriott Edgar wrote the screenplay.
Will's head of a school for bad boys. He's pretty lax and the boys are pretty wild. There's a plot with some crooks planning to steal the Mona Lisa, one crook is the father of a son at the school. he plans to use his son's field trip to France as a cover. There's another sub-plot about getting Will fired for being incompetant.
Graham Moffatt is one of the students, Charles Hawtrey is another, Clive Dunn has a small part, and Marcel Varnel plays a guard at the Louvre. Alfie director Lewis Gilbert, 17 when the picture came out, plays one of the students. His career started with a part in Dick Turpin in 1934 and his last credit was directing the 2002 movie Before You Go. He passed away last year at the age of 97.
It's a chaotic film with plenty of stuff happening. I got some laughs and I was glad to upgrade these Will Hay films, the downloads off of the internet were just too fuzzy.
Oh, Mr Porter 1937 ◊ Frank Launder wrote the original story for the movie. He's one of the two guys responsible for the original St Trinian's films, along with Sidney Gilliat. The screenplay was written by JOC Orton, Val Guest and Marriott Edgar. Marcel Varnel is the director. Here's a picture of the main cast and the director.
Left to right in the picture, we've got Graham Moffatt, Moore Marriott, Will Hay and Marcel Varnel. Some of the main cast are in other comedies I've seen, Dennis Wyndham, Dave O'Toole, Sebastian Smith, Agnes Lauchlan and Percy Walsh, but I'm not that familiar with them. I wouldn't recognize them without help.
The three guys above I've seen plenty. Sadly, Will wasn't too keen on the other two and he made it known. I've read that he thought they got more attention than him, especially the old man. He still had two more pictures to make with them.
In Oh, Mr Porter Will plays a bumbling railway employee who gets a promotion because of a rich relative, she puts the fix in with the head of the railroad and Will is sent to the tiny Northern Irish town of Buggleskelly, it's on the border with the Irish Free State. The station is remote and said to be haunted. Will finds Graham and Moore working at the station. Well, I say working, they're a couple of layabouts who steal anything they can get their hands on. Will tries to smarten them up a bit. He wants to make the line more profitable and make an impression with the head of the company. His plans go awry. Things get worse when Will and the boys run into some gun smugglers, they're running guns to the Irish Free State. The hapless trio do well to get out of that mess.
It's widely said that this is Will's best picture. It was included in the British Film Institute's 360 Classic Feature Films list. I've seen it 4 or 5 times now and it's one of my favs of Will's films. There's plenty of jokes, slapstick, hitting and stunts. I know I'll watch it again someday.
Convict 99 1938 ◊ Cyril Campion wrote the story, Ralph Smart and Jack Davis Jr wrote the adaptation, Val Guest and Marriott Edgar wrote the scenario, Marcel Varnel directed. Fans of Danger Man and Secret Agent might recognize Ralph's name. He was a writer, director and producer on several other great British TV shows, The Adventures Of Sir Lancelot, The Adventures Of Robin Hood, The Buccaneers, William Tell, The Invisible Man and The Champions. He directed a few films but I haven't ever come across them.
Will plays an incompetent headmaster at St Michael's School. He's sacked and applies for another job. Will gets into the wrong office when called in for an interview, no one notices and he's given the job of governor at Blakedown Prison. He has a few drinks on the way to what he thinks is a school and winds up behind bars. It's thought he's an escaped prisoner, convict 99, and he's tossed into the prison population. Eventually someone figures out he's the new governor and Will sets about to make the place nicer for the inmates. A prisoner steals a blank check and makes off with the prison's bank account. Will gets up a team of criminals and gives chase. They catch the escapee and return the money to the bank.
I've seen this 3 times and each time I like it more. I still think that the great number of coincidences are really dumb but the individual scenes are often quite funny. Moore Marriott and Graham Moffatt still working Will's nerve and my funny bone. Googie Withers, Dennis Wyndham and Roddy McDowall are in the cast.
Hey! Hey! USA 1938 ◊ Marcel Varnel directed the script that was written by a huge gang, Marriott Edgar, Val Guest, JOC Orton, Ralph Spence, Jack Swain, and Howard Irving Young.
In Hey! Hey! USA Will plays a porter who's drugged by a crook and left in the crook's stateroom. Will wakes up at sea. He gets to the USA and winds up tutoring a millionaire's son. There's plot to kidnap the son and a second gang that wants to steal the ransom from the kidnappers.
Edgar Kennedy plays a gangster and Roddy McDowell has a small part playing a boy. I didn't find it as funny as the last couple of movies but I still had a laugh or two. I usually like Edgar Kennedy and this was no different.
Old Bones Of The River 1938 ◊ Marcel Varnel is directing and Marriott Edgar, Val Guest, and JOC Orton wrote the script.
Will is a teaching missionary in Africa. Moore Marriott and Graham Moffatt play a couple of boatmen on the river. There's trouble with the natives, a native returning from getting an education brings booze and guns with him. He's wanting revolution and independence and his brother, the Chief, is a fan of the British and just wants a peaceful time. Will winds up in the middle of it all. It's got a few laughs but the script is kind of dull and listless. There's also some racist stuff that's often typical of the times sadly. Leaves a bit of a bad taste in my mouth but I won't throw out the DVD. It's important to know what went before and work to better that.
Ask A Policeman 1938 ◊ Marcel Varnel directs, Sidney Gilliat wrote the story, Marriott Edgar and Val Guest wrote the screenplay, with an uncredited JOC Orton adding something in there.
It's the last time Will will appear with Moore Marriott and Graham Moffatt. They are the men who man the village of Turnbotham Round police station. They've had ten years with no arrests and the police are questioning the need for the station. Trouble is Will and the gang are really incompetent. They plan to stage a crime but uncover a real crime. Now they must deal with that and a phantom headless horseman.
It was more fun than the last couple of pictures and I had some laughs. Maybe it's Sidney's good story? It's too bad that the trio wouldn't work together anymore. Now I'm done that lot of films. I'll file the discs away until the next time.
Comments