Black Sheep of Whitehall (1942) Online

This is one of Will Hay's overlooked gems – of course not up to his Gainborough standard it's continuously inventive with many hilarious patches. And John Mills excelled himself as his semi-comic sidekick in best Music Hall tradition.

Without going into too much detail: A Professor Davys is kidnapped by Nazi agents en route to the Ministry of International Commerce where he was to give the lowdown to the British government on how to screw 10 friendly South American governments with a multilateral economic agreement in the campaign to win WW2. The Nazis supply their own man to fool the Authorities. Hay, as seedy correspondence college Principal and Treasurer Professor Davis and Ministry clerk Mills get mixed up in it all when they discover the truth and the chase is on to out the Nazis. Believe it or not it would be quite an engrossing plot even without the comedy, and taken at breakneck speed. If remade today though cgi cartoonery, swearing, sex and violence would probably add 30 minutes on. Favourite bits: Hay's BBC radio interview with the despairing Leslie Mitchell; Mills in the hospital as an amnesiac; the nurse telling Hay (dressed as a nurse) she sees that Hay sticks to the old-fashioned undies and his surprising reply; the national anthems being played – although a missed opportunity to have Joss Ambler stand up in his turn; the slapstick chase with the Prof. in the bath-chair in tow. When the chair eventually loses its wheels the sound effects are relentlessly gorgeous!

With so many classics behind him and one classic still to make, Black Sheep can be compared unfavourably, but taken on its own is still a very funny British film made generations ago.

Will Hay was one of the most popular British comedians of the 1930's and early 1940's. He usually played a seedy incompetent trying vainly to exert his authority and prove his expertise to a sceptical world.

In this film Hay's character (Professor *Davis*) becomes confused with a truly expert economist (Professor *Davys*). The real professor is kidnapped by spies and Will Hay adopts a series of disguises in his efforts to track down the gang (aided by John Mills).

One of the highlights of the film comes when Hay has to deliver the Professor's talk on economics on BBC radio. His attempt to explain the global economy in terms of nuts from Brazil and port from Portugal ("Brazilians will definitely grow more and more nuts!") has to be heard to be believed and reduces the interviewer (played by BBC newsman Leslie Mitchell) to a nervous collapse. Priceless stuff!

This World War Two comedy starred popular comedian Will Hay, pitting himself with top straight actors like John Mills and Felix Aylmer.

When he is forced to vacate the office of his debt-ridden correspondence "college", "Professor" Will Davis goes to the Ministry of International Commerce at Whitehall, London, in order to confront his one-and-only student, PR man Bobby Jessop. To get Davis off his back, Jessop proposes to get him a job at Whitehall.

Jessop then leaves in order to fetch another Professor Davys at the train station. This Professor Davys is a leading economist who has returned from a long stay in South America in order to advise the government on a trade treaty with the South American nations, which could be crucial to Britain's war effort.

Will Davis is mistaken for the expert and gets involved in a series of interviews, giving answers based on gambling, con jobs, double entendres or just plain ignorance! Jessop later returns with "Professor Davys" and the confusion is sorted out, though it has left the BBC interviewers in a state of mental collapse! Jessop then discovers that the man he brought with him is in fact Crabtree, a member of a group of Fifth Columnists working for Nazi Germany.

Jessop promises Will Davis a job if he helps him track down the real Professor Davys, who is being held in a safe house by Crabtree's associates. Assuming a number of disguises, Will Davis and Jessop set off to foil the plot before the treaty is compromised! Full of puns, pursuits, running around and double-entendres, this is a wonderful comedy which pokes fun at espionage, the medical and transport services and bureaucratic red tape.

Hay and Mills had worked before, most notably on "Those Were the Days" (1933). They make a great pairing, with Mills being allowed to display his fair share of comedy ability, matching Hay with witty put-down talk.

Thora Hird features at the beginning as Will Davis' secretary, who is owed, rather than paid, to deal with the equally unpaid bills! And we get plenty from Shakespearean actor Felix Aylmer.

Wartime audiences must have enjoyed seeing broadcaster Leslie Mitchell driven to a nervous breakdown while interviewing Hay! Mitchell was the first commentator for the new BBC Television Service when it began transmissions on 2 November 1936. He also provided the commentary for the Movietone News shown at the cinemas.

Will hay was like many great comedians,he hated being part of a team.Two other examples being WC Fields in his later years and Tony Hancock.Despite doing his best work at Gainsborough he decided to break with them and join Ealing.As a result none of the 5 films that he starred and co-directed at Ealing are up to the standard of the films that he made with Graham Moffat and Moore Marriott.In this film his straight man is of all people John Mills.Whilst there are some funny moments this film is not consistently funny.Also it has to be said that Hay is starting to look quite old,he only made 2 more features after this before a series of strokes brought an untimely end to his career.

Associate producer: S.C. Balcon. Producer: Michael Balcon. (Available on an Optimum DVD).

Not copyrighted or theatrically released in the U.S.A. An Ealing Film, made and recorded at Ealing Studios, London. U.K. release through United Artists: 23 February 1942. Australian release through British Empire Films: 12 November 1942. Registered in the U.K. on 29 November 1941. 7,213 feet. 80 minutes. Censor cuts of approx. 150 feet in Australia.

SYNOPSIS: Muggins "professor" joins forces with rover boy civil servant to defeat a parcel of Nazi spies who have kidnapped a South American expert on manganese mines.

NOTES: Although much the same, if not better, than the usual Will Hay comedy, the film took only a moderate amount of money at British and Australian ticket windows, except in Tasmania where it rated around 29th or 30th for the year. In New Zealand, however, the film was a major success.

COMMENT: After a slow start, "Black Sheep..." finds Will Hay at the top of his form, including a couple of delicious impersonations (an aged ticket collector and a starchy nurse). A grand slapstick chase finale rounds out the fun.

John Mills makes a surprisingly adroit stooge, contributing some riotous scenes not only with Hay but with Frank Cellier (here hiding behind bushy-black eyebrows as a goggle-eyed doctor of dementia).

Other attractive performances are contributed by Felix Aylmer (as a bogus expert), Basil Sydney (as a Nazi reporter), Joss Ambler (as the flappable Minister), and Barbara Valerie (a helpful nurse). Good to see Ronald Shiner and Brefni O'Rorke in uncredited cameos.

The directors have worked smoothly together, photography is pleasingly glossy, editing deft and production values first rate. The script offers four or five times the comic opportunities of any similarly constructed Abbott and Costello picture. And thanks to the skills and talents of cast and technicians, this "Black Sheep..." comes out at least ten times funnier.

THE BLACK SHEEP OF WHITEHALL was one of the many films starring the now largely forgotten British comedian Will Hays. As usual, he's a shady character who gets dragged into things; this time a Professor Davies - running an mail order qualifications scam - who is confused with a Professor Daveys - a top Latin American economist come to London to arbitrate on a vital trade agreement - after the latter is kidnapped by Nazi agents in the middle of the Second World War. With John Mills' straight man, they rumble the plot and - afraid the police won't believe them - decide to free the right professor by infiltrating the sanitorium where he's being hidden. It's fast-paced, music-hall comedy as the pair bumble from scrape to scrape, with the inevitable transvestism and occasional war jokes. The highlight though is the climactic chase, in which the professor is towed behind a car on a medical tricycle; it is a brilliant piece of visual comedy that makes the entire film worthwhile. An old-fashioned treat.

Thanks to a recent biography and various fan groups, the comedy genius Will Hay can rightly take his place amongst the greats. By 1942, Hay's career had taken a different direction by the time he joined "Ealing" studios the previous year. "The Black Sheep of Whitehall" is another Second World War propaganda film and contains many funny scenes. Will Hay's comic timing is the same as always - impeccable! He plays another school teacher kind of character who inadvertently becomes embroiled in a plot orchestrated by the Nazis in England. John Mills is once again appearing opposite Hay after the film "Those Were the Days" from 1934. Mills provides excellent support for Hay and they play off each other very naturally. For about the only time I can recall, Will Hay makes an appearance in drag! I won't give away the scene but it has to be seen to be believed. A brisk pace and some good writing compliment the acting. Great fun.

Will Hay was never as funny again after leaving Gainsborough for Ealing, and with it Graham Moffat & Moore Marriott. This one is a particularly dispiriting affair, with few of a good cast at their best - and it doesn't even have Claude Hulbert! Hay laboriously impersonates six different characters without any attempt to change his voice or body language; while the concluding motor cycle chase set against an attractive rural backdrop initially promises to liven things up, but proves far too confusing and goes on far too long.

There are odd moments such as the radio interview with Leslie Mitchell that reduces Mitchell to a perspiring wreck, and John Mills has a couple of funny scenes impersonating an amnesiac in the Psychopathic Ward; but it took until Hay's next (and final) two films to return to something like his old form.

BLACK SHEEP OF WHITEHALL is a timely Will Hay comedy with a darker plot than most; the tale sees Hay and his governmental allies battling against an undercover Nazi agent who's trying his best to derail negotiations between England and South America. Of course, on the face of it this is made up of the usual slapstick and bumbling humour, but that dark undercurrent makes things funnier, if you see what I mean. Hay is on top form - a seasoned professional by this time - but the stand-out is John Mills, displaying a hitherto unseen knack for comedy. Things climax in a hilarious and extended chase scene involving an out-of-control bath chair, which is great fun.