Windbag the Sailor

A big fan of Will Hay .... this is typical of his humour with his 2 compatriots. Standard fayre but perfect timing makes it good even 80 years on.

This first entry in the six movies made by the English comic trio of Will Hay, Moore Marriott and Graham Moffatt. The film manages to entertain and delight from start to finish. Will Hay once again finds himself in an impossible situation: the captain of a British merchant marine vessel heading towards Norway. Marriot and Moffatt are landlubbers who are stowaways on the ship. Of course there is a mutiny and the three become castaways on a South Pacific Island. This movie contains some funny Buster Keaton moments on board of the ship. The funniest scene has Hay, Marriott and Moffatt trying to coordinate the latitude and longitude of the ship.

This is an early outing for Hay and the 2 stooges - Moore Marriott and Graham Moffatt - made before the ever famous Oh Mr Porter. Now largely forgotten this film set the scene for several more to follow - all largely with the same characters and plot but different settings.

Hay plays the usual incompetent fraud supported and at the same time harassed by his partners Moffatt and Marriott. The latter pair were never really recognised for their unique talents, certainly Hay never acknowledged this. It is doubtful if he would have been so successful without them. The film itself is a competent comedy, typical of the period and very British. One scene in particular stands out however - the "navigation" scene where the three attempt to ascertain where in the world they are. This is done with a school globe and a dress making measuring tape. The scene should be compulsory viewing for all aspiring comedians. Watch this film not for the story but just to see the three in action - poetry in motion sometimes.

Captain Ben Cutlet likes to spin yarns about all of his {fake}seafaring adventures, one day his false past comes to bite him as he is bluffed into captaining the Rob Roy at sea, the Rob Roy being barely sea worthy and doomed to be wrecked by a crafty shipping agent.

Windbag The Sailor is probably most notable for being the first teaming of Will Hay with Moore Marriott & Graham Moffatt, a trio that would go on to make classic British comedies Oh Mr Porter! and Ask A Policeman. Here its evident that they are finding their way as regards what best works for them as a team, but a few mistimings here and there are easily forgiven once the hapless Cutlet {Hay} finds himself at sea completely incapable of captaining the ever thuggish looking crewe. The usual madcap sequences from our bumbling trio dot themselves throughout the film, and there is no lack of oral gags as well, my favourite being one involving Hay explaining to a desert island native the power of the box {a radio acting as a god}.

Hay has done better and worse movies than this, but Windbag The Sailor just about holds its head above water {pun intended} because of the always lovable trio at its core, watchable fluff it be.

6/10

I've always enjoyed British humor and comedy; and I think the British movies and TV sitcoms of the late 20th century are generally far superior to those on this side of the pond. But, until recently I hadn't seen many early English films. So, I was surprised and pleased to find that our English cousins also had some early doses of slapstick and buffoonery on film. .

"Windbag the Sailor" is such a film. Its cast has some stars of British cinema from the silent days to the early years of sound pictures. Will Hay didn't start in pictures until sound, but he was a talented actor, writer and director. He plays Captain Ben Cutlet, who has many a yarn about his seagoing days to spin at the local pub. One can guess what the plot might be from that. Other actors add to the goofy plot that is punctuated with some hilarious scenes.

I don't know if the United Kingdom had anything like vaudeville. It surely had performance halls for such entertainment. A number of early American stage entertainers took their vaudeville acts to Europe in the early 20th century. If the Brits didn't have a phase of vaudeville, the country was quick to develop its own film industry. Movie houses opened as quickly as in the Americas. Comedies, dramas, mysteries and adventure films soon became common fare for the Brits. "Windbag the Sailor" is an early example of British buffoonery on film that most movie buffs should enjoy.