Convict 99

Whilst the changes Will Hay makes to the prison aren't quite as pink and fluffy as what Paddington achieves in PADDINGTON 2, you can't help drawing comparisons. Both films are warm, silly, funny and uniquely English.

Like the Carry On films, all Will Hay's Gainsborough films including CONVICT 99 essentially have the same plot and characters as all the others. It was however such a brilliant plot with such brilliant familiar characters that they could keep remaking the same picture over and over again and they'd still feel fresh. This one has different writing team to usual and they have created a story that's slightly more sophisticated (not a word often found in a Will Hay review!) from his other pictures.

Obviously it's not as good as OH MR PORTER because that's OH MR PORTER but being from Mr Hay's golden period, this is still one of the best comedies of the 1930s. ASK A POLICEMEN and WINDBAG THE SAILOR are possibly closest in style to PORTER but this very close.

This is one of the many Will Hay films that were made in the early 1900's, and in case you didn't know, Will Hay was a true British comic genius. Convict 99 Hay plays a school teacher who is being transferred to another school but due to a mix-up with some names he is mistaken as a prison governor and sent to some tough prison down in Devon. To make it worse when he arrives in a drunk state he is mistaken for a convict. From beginning to end this film is full of laughs. Original British comedy is truly a gem; Will Hay does comedy brilliantly and this film is no exception and as with most of his other films it also stars crazy old Moore Marriott and funny kid Graham Moffatt who add to the laughs as well. The story isn't half bad as well and you love how the characters react to different situations. Don't always turn away from black & white movies, especially the comedies, I'd give Convict 99 a 10 out of 10 any day, pure AWESOMNESS.

...but yet SO ridiculous that it draws you in and you have to stay watching to see what happens.

Benjamin Twist was a school master, and he's at this agency wanting a job in a school for reformed boys. But a general misunderstanding/mistaken identity gets him instead a different job, that of a prison governor! You see the man they wanted for the job is called Mr. Benjamin, as in *last* name Benjamin. So when everyone starts calling Mr. Twist 'Benjamin' (which is his first name), he just calls them all by their first names back and they all think he's such a riot. He does eventually realise their mistake, but at the same time finds out that the job pays £2000 a year; where the job he was actually after only pays £75. Well, being a prison warden isn't THAT much different from being schoolmaster to difficult boys, is it...

Given the befit of hindsight one of many ironic lines in this film is that "Even in Russia you get a fair trial!"

Probably the slickest of Will Hay's Gainsborough period, combining elements that subsequently served Peter Sellers well in 'Two-Way Stretch' and 'The Wrong Arm of the Law', peddling the reassuring notion that the criminal fraternity were capable of far greater resource than the actual upholders of law and order.

Despite the presence of Moore Marriott - who as Jerry the Mole makes 'stir crazy' a positive understatement - and Graham Moffatt (cutting quite a dash as a prison officer), director Marcel Varnel had at his disposal a much larger cast than previously, including such later Ealing luminaries as Basil Radford (seen too briefly, alas), with Google Withers hard as nails as a fake Russian countess who pays Hays the backhanded compliment of describing him as "as big a liar as I am!", and a rare cameo appearance by stout xylophonist Teddy Brown as a denizen of the underworld answering to the name 'Slim' Charlie.

Although the credits read "Will Hay as Convict 99" that honour actually belongs to Wilfred Walter who plays the definitive scowling malcontent Max Slessor seen at one point wielding a mean blackjack.

Will Hay starring once again with trusty second bananas Moore Marriott and Graham Moffatt plays a schoolmaster who's been kicked out of his last employment. Seeking a new job he's made governor (warden to us Yanks) of a prison. But through a wonderful series of mishaps arrives much like Robert Redford did in Brubaker. Takes them a while before they realize he is the new governor.

Once there the prisoners realize that they've got themselves a Captain Parmenter like pigeon. Hay's so stupid and so full of himself he thinks he's doing grand things. The cons realize that if they just make him look good they can turn the place into a country club and do.

Marriott plays a lifer who has tunneled just about everywhere in the system, but hasn't escaped yet. Moffatt plays a simple and trusting prison guard. All three are bloody marvelous as the British would say.