The Ghost of St. Michael's

Just a couple of points: the school is moved to Skye in the Hebrides, Scotland, NOT the Channel Islands.

Also, I would not say it is a take on The Ghost Train: that would be Oh Mr Porter, surely.

But certainly one of the most watchable of Will Hay's films.

It is amazing to see people like John Laurie, who went on to play Private Frazer in Dad's Army on TV, and, of course, Charles Hawtrey.

Did any of the other schoolboys go on to feature or star in other films?

Anybody know?

If you do, let us know

I thoroughly enjoyed this Will Hay comedy, which successfully combines the school story and the requisite nod to wartime concerns with the spoof haunting theme that had featured in some of his most successful earlier work. The old team of Graham Moffat and Moore Marriott are here absent, but Hay is teamed very effectively with chinless Claude Hulbert and a young Charles Hawtrey as a precocious schoolboy. Hay's protagonist treads a skilfully effective line between annoying (we relish watching him get taken down a peg, rather than wincing) and sympathetic, while Hawtrey's gadfly-like persistence as a boy far brighter than his teachers is equally well judged, and Claude Hulbert makes ineffectuality likable.

The film has its share of broad comedy (watch for what Hay does with that piglet...) but often avoids obvious expectations, and is the funnier for it. The suspiciously Teutonic teacher is not, of course, what he seems; the ghost is, of course, not what it seems either; and the motivation which ultimately enlists the boys on the side of their erstwhile petty dictator is certainly not the type customary in school stories!

Overall "The Ghost of St Michael's" is a blend of guffaw-rich visual humour with accomplished misdirection to produce a very appropriate vehicle for its star. The beginning is a little hit and miss, but the film is still full of laugh-out-loud moments.

I'm giving this seven out of ten, back as a kid it would have been a ten but this time round, well, I suppose you know you're getting old when you find yourself sympathising with Will Hay's incompetent teacher, and rather hoping the obnoxious, snotty school kids get a slap; Charles Hawtrey's smart alec schoolboy in particular seems a nasty piece of work. Otherwise the absence of Moffatt and Marriott are keenly felt, because they allowed Hay to be both blustery incompetence but also sarcastic - here he doesn't get anyone to be sarcastic or superior to, so it's a relatively one-note performance. In his earlier roles you never knew if he'd be the fool or the sarcy one at any given time, it kept you on your toes.

Huntley and Laurie would appear in the war movie The Way Ahead of course. Personally I'm not sure the plot machinations of St Michael's stand up. Was it Huntley's ink on the forged suicide note? What gives? Still, the ending has a few surprises and some genuinely sinister moments.

Will Hay was too old to serve in the armed forces during World War II, but he did his part to ease the tension in England with some comedy films until he retired in 1943. "The Ghost of St. Michael's" isn't his funniest movie, but it is a fair comedy mystery that just incidentally has to do with the war.

Again, the comical Hay takes to the classroom where he is a teacher of questionable credentials (and abilities). He plays Will Lamb. This was all shot in the Ealing Studios near London, but the setting is of a castle somewhere on the coast of Scotland. It has been converted to a school for boys (high school age) whose school has been closed during the bombing of London.

The funniest part of the film is the scene of a court being conducted in a barn. Animals keep coming and going to the consternation of the presiding judge. Ducks, pigs, a goat, a chicken and a cow all have cameo appearances. The best lines are from this scene. Here are my favorite lines.

Procurator Fiscal (played by Hay Petrie), "I put it to you, Mr. Lamb. Either you are grossly incompetent to teach chemistry, or you're making a puerile attempt to avoid an accusation of having caused the death of Mr. Humphries."

Procurator Fiscal, 'You couldn't possibly have known that I would say what I've just said." Will Lamb, "Listen, if you're trying to say that I wouldn't have said what I said I'd say, if you said what you said you would've said, well all I can say is fiddle sticks."

I like all of Will Hay's films, but apart from 'Oh, Mr Porter,' this is my favourite. It is jam packed with funny one-liners and comic situations and gives Hay full reign to play his seedy music hall schoolmaster. A wee gem of a film.