Old Bones of the River **** (1938, Will Hay, Moore Marriott, Graham Moffatt) – Classic Movie Review 5824

Director Marcel Varnel’s 1938 British vintage comedy is wicked fun with Will Hay and his cronies Moore Marriott and Graham Moffatt trying to spread knowledge among African natives.

Marriott Edgar, Val Guest and J O C Orton’s screenplay and the comedy performing crackle with manic energy as the wonderful puns and crossfire exchanges sum up what was best about the British music-hall.

The colonial caper plot, with irascible, dithering teacher Professor Benjamin Tibbetts (Hay) entangled in a native uprising while travelling up river in Africa to open schools, pokes harmless merriment at colonial attitudes in Edgar Wallace’s adventure yarn Sanders of the River, filmed in 1935.

Moore Marriott and Graham Moffat play Jerry Harbottle and Albert Brown, Robert Adams plays Bosambo, Paul Robeson’s character in the 1938 film, and Wyndham Goldie plays Commissioner Sanders, the Leslie Banks character in the original. It is narrated by The Western Brothers as The Voice of Reproach.

Fun though it is, the parody of Sanders of the River can be accused of racism and is rather tasteless given the circumstances of its star Paul Robeson’s frustrated wish for his film to understand and respect the roots of Black culture and portray Africans positively.

Also in the cast are Robert Adams, Jack Livesey, and Jack London.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5824

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