Where There's a Will (1936)

Director:

William Beaudine

Writers:

Leslie Arliss (story) and
Sidney Gilliat (story) ...

Release Date:

10 August 1936 (UK)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

An incompetent solicitor unwittingly becomes party to a bank robbery. |

Cast

Will Hay	...	Benjamin Stubbins
Graham Moffatt	...	Willie, The Office Boy
H.F. Maltby	...	Sir Roger Wimpleton
Norma Varden	...	Lady Margaret Wimpleton
Peggy Simpson	...	Barbara Stubbins
Gibb McLaughlin	...	Martin, The Butler
Gina Malo	...	Goldie Kelly
Hartley Power	...	Duke Wilson
Eddie Houghton	...	Slug Riley
Hal Walters	...	Nick Harris
John Turnbull	...	Detective Collins
Sybil Brooke	...	Mrs Peabody, Landlady
Davina Craig	...	Lucie, The Maid

Runtime:

80 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Colour:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (British Acoustic)

Filming Locations:

Islington Studios, Islington, London, England, UK

Company:

Gainsborough Pictures

Quotes:

Benjamin Stubbins: A merry Christmas, girls and boys / I've brought you jewels, instead of toys / In spite of what you think / it seems to me I've earned a drink.

Where There's a Hay

Will Hay's funniest films were generally written by Marriott Edgar and Val Guest, with Marcel Varnel in the director's chair. Working with William Beaudine as director and a different team of writers, it is perhaps not surprising that this is not one of Will Hay's better films. There are some funny moments to be had, whenever young Graham Moffatt is on screen in particular, but in general little imagination can be seen in both the screenplay and Beaudine's vision of the material.

Nearly half an hour passes before the crime plot at the centre of the film starts to develop, with nothing but jokes to sustain it for the first third of its duration. The film not only progresses slowly because of this, it also has no real atmosphere either. The characters are all stereotypes too: the clever and dumb criminals, the altruistic daughter, the disapproving family members, although given a couple of exceptions for Moffatt's office boy and Martin, the easily drunken butler.

What the film does do very well is jokes that rely on how scenes are cut together in order for them to work. For example, one character says "I wonder what is holding him up", which is followed by a shot in another scene of the man she was talking about literally held up by some rope or cloth. It is hardly a poor film, although the coincident reliance plot is nothing to boast about. It is an amusing one and a half hours, but nothing hysterically funny, nor anything thought provoking or particularly clever.