Film Review
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.
© James Travers 2009
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Film Synopsis
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...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.