Ask a Policeman

Will Hay was never better than when he was working with Graham Moffatt and Moore Marriot, both of whom had such a rapport with him (or his character) that it really is hard not to be charmed by the trio.

It's a familiar and obvious plot that Hay used to it's best - incompetent authoritative figure gets in a mess with the help of his two stooges, falls out with the boss (Chief Constable), is taken advantage of by the locals (smugglers) but eventually wins the day.

This is a joy from start to finish and very, very nearly matches Oh Mr Porter. There's gags from the very start to the very end.

A piece of classic entertainment with the virtue of being free from sex, violence and swearing. They don't make like this anymore I'm sorry to say.

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!

Wacky British humor abounds in this story of three bumbling policemen (including a very old man and a very overweight youth) who run the tiny station in the quiet (so quiet there's nothing out at night except, of course, the night-riding "Headless Horseman") English village of Turnbottom Round where there has not been a single arrest made in over ten years. Promoting with pride this lack of crime on a radio program one evening, the next day the station gets a notice from the chief constable that their station is no longer needed, the policemen working there to be "retired or transferred". So - our three officers come up with the idea to *create* some crime, first putting up a local "speed trap", then later getting mixed up with a gang of real smugglers.

This film is, yes, quite silly, but very entertaining and amusing - boosted up considerably by the three actors who play the policemen. They seem to have a real camaraderie and rapport with each other, all look like they're having a great deal of fun making this. One very funny scene has the oldest policeman visiting, of all things, his even older father - played by the same actor, dressed up in bed with long white beard. One missed bit of humor I thought they could have done here though - they mention that the father still has a living wife and I thought it would have been funny if they had the same actor dress as her too and come out into the room. In fact, that is what I was expecting when the woman was mentioned, but it didn't happen - ah well. A quite humorous and enjoyable film.

The small English village of Turnbottom Round prides itself on being the safest place in the United Kingdom. All due to the crack law enforcement team of Will Hay and his two second bananas Moore Marriott and Graham Moffatt. In fact they're so good they haven't made any arrests in ten years, didn't even pick up a drunk for a night to sleep it off. They even have a BBC broadcast to celebrate this town and its peaceful nature and peaceful cops.

But someone decides this little sinecure has gone on long enough. What to do, but create some crime. But these three muck up traffic arrests.

Their salvation of sorts might be a suspected smuggling ring which has taken advantage of the lax police work and operates with impunity. Not that Turnbottom Round PD does anything really but the bad guys are rounded up in spite of Hay and his staff.

Some really funny sequences including the BBC broadcast where no one can quite get the use of the microphone right, the search for the smugglers, the attempts at enforcing traffic laws and how that works out and the final chase scene where Turnbottom Round's finest commandeer a bus for their pursuit.

This nicely done Will Hay comedy could have been a model for Police Academy movies.