Boys Will Be Boys

Dr. Alexander Smart (Smart Alec to the boys) gets himself headmastership at a boys' school when he and another man forge a letter of recommendation from his previous boss (throwing out the original letter that says quite the opposite!) While there, he ends up tangled in an elaborate jewel robbery, and is caught between a rock and a hard place when the thief lets him know that he still has the original letter, which he will show to the heads if Alex should mess up their plans.

Will Hay is Alexander Smart, who whilst teaching in prison, asks the Governor to write him a recommendation to aid his application for the position of Headmaster at Narkover School. Thinking the Governor has done him a favour, Smart is most perturbed to find that the Governor has written a less than flattering reference. Hope comes in illegal form when prisoner Faker Brown sends off a forged signature glowing reference, one that gets Smart the position. However, Smart's problems are just about to begin because Narkover is a hotbed of crime, and that's just the pupils!

Based on J.B. Morton's {AKA Beachcomber} humorous Dr Alec Smart character than ran in column form in Britain's Daily Express Newspaper from the mid 1920s, this was to be Will Hay's first film for Gainsborough Pictures. It was also to be his big break in cinema. Hay had made his name in British music hall productions in the 1920s, where as a bumbling buffoon schoolmaster, he served notice of a character that would make up a number of his big screen persona's. Boys Will Be Boys, directed by William Beaudine and co-written by Hay and Robert Edmunds, finds Hay honing the inept teacher role for better and far funnier productions that were still to come. But that in no way means this film isn't funny, because it certainly is.

A number of well executed comedy sequences light up the already jolly script. See an interesting line in carpet surfing, a how high is a Chinaman skit and a fabulous finale involving the school annual rugby match. Where missing diamonds and a whistle provide first class excuse for fun and frolics. There's also a fun thread involving Davy Burnaby's constantly exasperated Col. Crableigh, who had wanted his hapless nephew Theo P. Finch {Claude Dampier} in the headmasters position. If you can't find joy in a magic trick scene involving Crableigh's watch then there be no hope for you!. Filling out the cast is Norma Varden as Lady Dorking and Gordon Harker as the crooked Faker Brown who has come to the school to get rewarded for his forging favour to Alec. Oh and a whole ream of unruly pupils getting up to no end of mischief and crooked shenanigans.

Allegaza, Allegazi, Allegazam. 7/10

This was the Master Will Hay's 4th film and 1st for Gainsborough, for which he did his best work overall – although his last for Ealing was also a world-beater. He was playing his long established stage persona of seedy schoolmaster here even though it was also supposedly based on Beachcomber's (J.B. Morton) Narkover from the Daily Express - Morton later stated he had had no involvement in the production.

School and prison school teacher Dr. Alec Smart by criminal (and comic) means gets the job of Headmaster at Narkover School, a notorious training ground for the criminals of the future. When arriving he gets a boisterous welcome from the "boys", including being unceremoniously towed on a rug around the entrance by a taxi and then being hoisted aloft and blanketed. Next day he's caught playing cards by the chairman of the Board of Governors, who he tells to mind his own business not knowing how important a personage he is. The "boys" were out of control yet still wore impeccable school uniforms and caps - I say "boys" because half of them looked over 30. I think the film was given an "A" certificate by the UK censor so as not to set youth a bad example! Nowadays it's all they're set. It's all delightful stuff, one episode flowing into the next, and leading soon to the theft of a diamond necklace. Favourite bits: Gordon Harker as an ex-lag then dubious school porter and rather intense thief; playing banker with the "boys"; the singing of the rousing school song on Founders Day by the "boys"; the rugby match where the possession of the ball was the main thing. Hay certainly made an impression here!

The very best was still to come, but this is a joy to watch too and always a pleasant 80 minute time filler for me.

Way Hay had been performing his "Fourth Form at St. Michaels" routines for a quarter of a century when he made this movie, the first of his "Schoolmaster" films. Most of the fun for a contemporary audience would have been too see it in the cinema, instead of over the radio or (rarely) on the stage.

Hay hits most of his character's notes right off the bat: he's venal, not as well-educated as he would let on, and a bit dithery. It's not the best of his movies, nor even of the Schoolmaster efforts. That would not happen until he had picked up his best stooge, Moore Marriott as a student so dimwitted he has grown old in the school -- a role originally played on the stage by Hay's wife.

Although not the best, there are plenty of laughs in this one, provided mostly by "Mayhem in the Classroom" routines and Hay's interaction with Gordon Harker, as Hay's forger, valet and blackmailer. The cinema-goer is offered a view of the public school boy and the graduates of Narkover School as venal, stupid, outright criminal and barely outwitted by Hay -- an image that surely appealed to the often lower-class film audiences.

As the film clearly highlights, there is very little difference for a teacher if he is teaching in a prison or an all-boys school. Both venues require discipline and ingenuity, as well as a bit of patience. The movie is amusing despite some of the predictable pranks of the students. Add a star if you are a teacher.