Windbag the Sailor (1936) - film review

Captain Ben Cutlet is fond of regaling one and all with tall tales of his nautical adventures.  The reality is that, whilst he claims to be an old sea dog, he has never captained anything larger than a canal barge.   The wealthy widow Olivia Potter-Porter is so impressed with Ben that she decides he will be the ideal person to captain one of her ships, the Rob Roy.  Mrs Potter-Porter’s business partner, Yates, agrees, but for different reasons.  Since the ship is no longer sea worthy, he intends to have it scuttled at sea so that he can claim on the insurance.  Seeing that Captain Cutlet is obviously a fraud, Yates realises that he would make the perfect scapegoat when the ship goes down...

Windbag the Sailor marked the beginning of Will Hay’s successful partnership with his two long suffering stooges Moore Marriott and Graham Moffatt (although the latter had appeared in Hay’s previous film Where There’s a Will).  The winning trio would feature in some of Hay’s best-loved films, including the classics Oh, Mr. Porter! (1937) and Convict 99 (1938), providing a typically British riposte to the Marx Brothers with their penchant for slapstick and anti-authoritarian tomfoolery.

Whilst not the best of Will Hay’s films, Windbag the Sailor is entertaining enough, with its amusing send-up of the Mutiny on the Bounty and (now) politically incorrect portrayal of South Sea islanders (as cannibals who are easily fooled into thinking that a radio has a divine purpose).  The comedic high point is the inspired sequence in which Hay and his two hapless companions try to work out the position of their ship.  By dividing the distance travelled by the position of the sun they somehow conclude that they have arrived in Birmingham, after having circumnavigated the globe at least two times.  The rambling madcap plot gets in the way a little too often but Will Hay’s comic genius and the high gag quotient keep us laughing through what is really a very, very silly film.

© filmsdefrance.com 2009

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