Good Morning, Boys (1937) - film review

Dr Benjamin Twist is a hopelessly inept schoolmaster at one of England’s minor public schools.  When a visit by a school inspector ends in disaster, Dr Twist is informed that he will be dismissed and the school closed down unless his students win an inter-schools examination, to be held in London.  The students manage to get hold of a copy of the exam paper and coerce Dr Twist into supplying them with all the answers.  Naturally, the enterprising students win the competition and are rewarded with an expenses paid trip to Paris.  Here, Dr Twist and his troublesome charges become mixed up in an attempt to steal the Mona Lisa from the Louvre Gallery...

Good Morning, Boys offers another enjoyable round of anarchic comedy featuring the incomparable Will Hay, one of the finest British comedy performers of his generation.  Here, Hay reprises the character that had first brought him to the attention of the public, the hopelessly inadequate schoolmaster, last seen in Boys Will Be Boys (1935).  What is so unnerving about Hay’s characterisation is how true to life it is; we can all bring to mind at least one soi-disant teacher from our dim and distant schooldays who looks like the twin of the buffoon that Hay portrays here with such ruthless acerbity.  

Every great comedy performer needs a sidekick and Will Hay is no exception, with Graham Moffatt being the cheeky stooge whose side Hay cannot resist kicking.  The two actors make an effective comedy double act and worked together on no less than eight films.  Charles Hawtrey makes the first of his four appearances in a Will Hay film, many years before he found lasting fame as one of the regulars of the Carry On team.  As talented as Moffat and Hawtrey are, neither can compete with the sex appeal and charisma of Lilli Palmer (the future Mrs Rex Harrison), who brings more than a touch of Hollywood-style glamour (not a quality that we usually associate with a Will Hay film).

Whilst not Will Hay’s best film, Good Morning, Boys is a rollicking piece of escapist fun, offering plenty of good laughs and some imaginative comedy routines.  Admittedly the plot is the cinematic equivalent of potpourri (fragrant but incredibly messy) and some of the jokes look as if they died and were buried on the Music Hall stage twenty years before, but the combined talents of Hay and his co-stars is enough to ensure a high mirth quotient.  There’s no place like Ohm, indeed.

© filmsdefrance.com 2009

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