My Learned Friend is Will Hay's last movie, it came out in 1943. Angus MacPhail and John Dighton wrote the screenplay and Basil Dearden and Will Hay directed. Will got cancer and he didn't work in films anymore. It's too bad, it's one of my favorites of Will's films.
That's Claude Hulbert, Mervyn Johns and Will Hay, left to right. Will's a shady barrister, we first meet him in court where he talks his way out of trouble, Claude is the barrister trying to convict him. Mervyn is a forger who had Will for his defense. Will had lost that case and Mervyn went to jail. Now he's out and he tells Will and Claude he's interested in executing those who put him behind bars. At first he convinces Will he's joking but then he sends Will a newspaper with a story about the very same Judge at the trail being drowned in a river. The note from Mervyn asks if the judge fell or was pushed.
For some reason Claude joins Will in trying to warn the other victims before Mervyn gets his hands on them. They aren't very successful and there are 3 more murders. Now Mervyn is after Claude and Will. There's plenty of running about and activity with the trio winding up inside Big Ben. Mervyn has rigged the clock to blow up boxes of dynamite under the Houses of Parliament. At one point they've all crawled out onto the face of the clock. Lucky the Bobbies arrive to save Will and Claude from death.
It's nicely dark and there's a great mix of crime and comedy. Some say that it was the template for future, darker Ealing comedies like The Lady Killers and Kind Hearts and Coronets. There's plenty of killing and some of the murders are rather inventive. Will and Claude are fun together and Mervyn does a nice murderous lunatic. There's plenty of other enjoyable characters for them to interact with, their dialog is entertaining and so their physical comedy. There's some action and one of the better bar room brawls that isn't in a western. It would have been nice to have several more Will Hay comedies that were as good as this. It wasn't too be so I'll have to be happy with the lot I have. Glad I picked this up, I'll run it again.
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