Windbag the Sailor

A retired barge captain entertains customers in a pub with tall tales of days at sea. He gets caught out when he is tricked into captaining an unseaworthy ship which is to be scuttled for insurance money.

Mildly amusing film with Will Hay as the ship captain aided by Moore Marriott and Graham Moffat as stowaways. These three would go on to to make other, better, films together. Some racial stereotypes and language are now outdated.

I've only seen this a handful of times in the last few decades, I don't know why it's warranted such indifference by the TV film buyers because it's fairly good but maybe with a slightly dodgy soundtrack. Although Will Hay appeared with Moore Marriott 7 times and Graham Moffatt 8, this was their first film of 6 as the seedy, incompetent, crafty trio of lovable rogues. In other words pre-Oh! Mr. Porter and cast and crew were obviously busy establishing the plot and humour that served them well in the years ahead.

Charlatan ship's captain and sidekicks are taken on by ship's owner (and sidekick) for their own nefarious purposes, eventually realised where else but in the South Seas. Almost the entire cast reassembled to create Oh! Mr. Porter 2 years later, by then the script was much tighter than this. The ship is not the only thing here to have a few leaks! Favourite bits: Hay bragging of his derring-do at Valpariso; The global positioning calculations; Sharing the biscuits on the raft; The Box That Talked.

All in all well worth watching (at budget price!) for those of us who like this sort of thing.

Of all the 1930s English comedies, Will Hay's films are the ones which appeal most in a modern audience. Silly, gentle, nostalgic and always uplifting. Although most of his films are virtually identical, this is one of the best.

This was made immediately after WHERE THERE'S A WILL with the same team but with one notable addition: Moore Marriott and Graham Moffatt as Harbottle and Albert who would repeat their roles in Hay's next five pictures. These three are simply magical together.

Although his gentle humour; laughing at loveable incompetence is akin to that of Laurel and Hardy, I find the mood of Hay's films, that sense of teetering close to the close to the cliff edge between blissful ignorance and anarchy closer to that of early Marx Brothers. Maybe it's also because they inevitably have a Margaret Dumont equivalent, a wealthy trusting and naïve patron who can see only the good in Will Hay/Groucho - in this picture, like the previous ones that's Norma Varden who looks and acts suitably matronly despite only being 36! A film like this ostensibly looks childish but what it's doing is appealing to our base emotions and there's nothing wrong with that - after all, you couldn't call SPONGEBOB sophisticated but it's still funny.

It takes real genius (Hay was famously quite the intellectual) to make something which appears so childish so engaging to grown-ups.

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 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.