Windbag the Sailor *** (1936, Will Hay, Moore Marriott, Graham Moffatt, Norma Varden) – Classic Movie Review 8199

Director William Beaudine’s 1936 British comedy Windbag the Sailor stars Will Hay in his first teaming with Moore Marriott and Graham Moffatt.

The beloved trio of comics try hard with a moderate script and character acting support that seems insufficiently involved, but a good comedy director, and come up with a sporadically funny movie.

When Hay’s retired coal barge captain character pretends to be a sailor as bogus sea captain Ben Cutlet, who has to go to sea since he is tricked into taking command of an unseaworthy ship, the Rob Roy, which its owners intend to sink. But the crew mutiny and he flees with stowaways Jeremiah Harbottle (Marriott) and Albert (Moffatt) to a desert island inhabited by cannibals, where the trio wildly impress the natives and scare them into being friends by the radio that they have taken from the ship. The three then set out to recapture the Rob Roy.

If the pace and script are shaky, the three star performances never are. Unfortunately, producer Michael Balcon disliked Hay’s comedy which he thought was too downmarket for his tastes at Gainsborough Pictures studio.

Also in the cast are Norma Varden, Kenneth Warrington, Amy Veness, Dennis Wyndham, Gina Malo, Hartley Power, George Merritt, Charles Rolfe, Leonard Sharp, Harry Terry, Peter Gawthorne and Percy Walsh as Captain of the Rob Roy.

Windbag the Sailor is written by Leslie Arliss, (original story), Robert Stevenson (original story), Robert Edmunds, Marriott Edgar (screenplay), Stafford Dickens (screenplay), and Will Hay (screenplay).

Captain Ben Cutlet asks the cannibal chief for directions to go to Norway. Will Hay separated from his wife in 1935 and visited a Norwegian woman called Randi Kopstadt frequently, learned Norwegian and kept a boat on the Oslo Fjord.

Marriott and Moffatt had previously acted in films starring Hay, Dandy Dick and Where There’s a Will.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8199

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