Ask a Policeman

This is another excellent little film from the great Will Hay, the English comic genius that no-one today has ever heard of!

I only saw this because HMV record shop (in the UK) were selling off tons of Will Hay DVDs at £6.99 each - what better chance than to discover anew the great Will Hay. I didn't even think that Will Hay would be available on DVD, yet there are many.

The three-man team of Hay, Marriott, and Moffatt are brilliant as usual, just a bunch of bumbling clowns pretending to themselves that they know what they're doing. Of course, by pure luck, they manage to catch the villains and do themselves credit.

Interesting shots of Brooklands racing circuit in the pre-War years (this circuit remains but has been chopped up in parts).

Turnbotham Round has no crime, something that becomes common knowledge after a radio programme is broadcast from the village. Upon hearing this broadcast, the top brass at Scotland Yard send word that if there is no crime there, then why employ policemen to police the village? Realising that their good lives are about to come to an end, inept coppers Dudfoot (Will Hay), Brown (Graham Moffatt) and Harbottle (Moore Marriott) set about making some arrests. What they hadn't bargained for was the uncovering of a smuggling ring and the unleashing of the phantom headless horseman.

Much like Will Hay's Good Morning, Boys (1937) followed a similar formula to that of one of his earlier pictures, Boys Will Be Boys (1935), so it be with Ask A Policeman in that it has close links with critics fave, Oh Mr. Porter! (1937). However, that in no way is a bad thing because Ask A Policeman is utter joy from start to finish. In fact I would go so far as to say that the writing is actually better here. With a writing team consisting of Marriott Edgar, Sidney Gilliat, Val Guest and J.O.C. Orton, it's no wonder that the gags come thick and fast and still hold up over 80 years later.

Marcel Varnel once again directs Hay and his blunderingly magnificent sidekicks, Marriott and Moffatt, and each of them are on terrific form as they within a heartbeat lurch from incredulity to stupidity. They are helped by the story and its delightful supernatural set ups. These coppers have been having it easy for so long they have forgotten just what it takes to be a copper. More content with bending the rules for an easy life (note some nice satire in the writing), these guys are suddenly faced with the supernatural and actual real crime. Something they are delightfully unable to properly cope with. From trying to set up a roadside speeding arrest to an attempt at solving an ancient smugglers rhyme, Ask A Policeman, courtesy of an across the board team on fire, is to my mind one of the greatest British films of all time. So pay attention to the jokes and admire the visual comedy that goes with them, and then hopefully you too will appreciate just what genius Hay and his cohorts brought to British comedy between 1936 to 1940. 10/10

Ask a policeman has always suffered from close comparison with Oh, Mr. Porter! and is therefore (unfairly) usually considered an inferior film. On its own it would stand up very well, with plenty of gags to the minute and set-pieces all working throughout, but because the plot was a retread from the previous classic it tends to be forgotten. And it's a pretty direct lifting at times, too! However, the gags do work and are different to reflect the slightly different situations the characters find themselves in and this alone can sustain the interest.

Instead of being railway employees at a lonely railway station up against smugglers this time they're police officers at a lonely police station up against smugglers.

In other words it's a beautiful re-run of OMP, but after watching it you can still think of just how inventive Val Guest, Marriott Edgar and Sidney Gilliat were in the screenplay, just how versatile Hay, Moffat and Marriott were in their portrayals of the Superior, Albert and Jerry and what a marvellous bookend this is for Oh, Mr.Porter!

Because "Oh Mr Porter" was filmed two years earlier, it gets more favour from the critics, but although this film was a reworking of that plot, it stands up equally, if not better. -

There are so many great scenes. My favourite being when Harbottle (Marriott already playing a much older man) takes them to see his father, played by himself. Just shows what a superb actor he was. - The print quality seems a little worse for wear in places. Probably due to over use!

What a comedy! This is a movie that had me laughing from beginning to end. Even after all these years the one line gags from Will Hay are superbly timed. The movie plot about smugglers is good but all three main characters make this film a real hoot as local village policemen. I have this on video and watch it regularly if I need a laughter pick-me-up! Classic line, they need to arrest someone to prove the village needs a local bobby, Moffatt suggests Guy Faulkes, to which Will Hay replies "he's not a criminal, he invented fireworks" brilliant!

Please watch it, you'll love it.