Will Hay is Alexander Smart, who whilst teaching in prison, asks the Governor to write him a recommendation to aid his application for the position of Headmaster at Narkover School. Thinking the Governor has done him a favour, Smart is most perturbed to find that the Governor has written a less than flattering reference. Hope comes in illegal form when prisoner Faker Brown sends off a forged signature glowing reference, one that gets Smart the position. However, Smart's problems are just about to begin because Narkover is a hotbed of crime, and that's just the pupils!
Based on J.B. Morton's {AKA Beachcomber} humorous Dr Alec Smart character than ran in column form in Britain's Daily Express Newspaper from the mid 1920s, this was to be Will Hay's first film for Gainsborough Pictures. It was also to be his big break in cinema. Hay had made his name in British music hall productions in the 1920s, where as a bumbling buffoon schoolmaster, he served notice of a character that would make up a number of his big screen persona's. Boys Will Be Boys, directed by William Beaudine and co-written by Hay and Robert Edmunds, finds Hay honing the inept teacher role for better and far funnier productions that were still to come. But that in no way means this film isn't funny, because it certainly is.
A number of well executed comedy sequences light up the already jolly script. See an interesting line in carpet surfing, a how high is a Chinaman skit and a fabulous finale involving the school annual rugby match. Where missing diamonds and a whistle provide first class excuse for fun and frolics. There's also a fun thread involving Davy Burnaby's constantly exasperated Col. Crableigh, who had wanted his hapless nephew Theo P. Finch {Claude Dampier} in the headmasters position. If you can't find joy in a magic trick scene involving Crableigh's watch then there be no hope for you!. Filling out the cast is Norma Varden as Lady Dorking and Gordon Harker as the crooked Faker Brown who has come to the school to get rewarded for his forging favour to Alec. Oh and a whole ream of unruly pupils getting up to no end of mischief and crooked shenanigans.
Allegaza, Allegazi, Allegazam. 7/10
