Review of Good Morning Boys / Hey Hey USA

Introduction

Good Morning Boys
This is the quintessential Will Hay picture, a vehicle for his music-hall dodgy headmaster character Benjamin Twist. This was the movie that turned Hay into one of Britain`s top box office draws of the 1930s, and remember that in an era when cinema attendance was the nation`s primary entertainment medium that made Hay as popular then as David Jason is today. If you`re collecting the movies, this one technically goes between "Where There`s A Will" and "Convict 99".

Made in 1937, the movie was directed by frequent Hay collaborator Marcel Varnel, and written by the team of Marriott Edgar and Val Guest from an original story by Anthony Kimmins. It`s a farcical cross-channel adventure for our seedy headmaster as he finds himself at loggerheads with a peppery new member of the school governors. Having to prove his teaching skills, he has to put his pupils up against a group of other schools in a written examination. By largely foul means, his pupils score the highest and he (and the pupils) are invited to Paris to demonstrate his teaching methods. Conveniently for a bunch of crooks aiming to steal the Mona Lisa from the Louvre, the trip affords transport for a member of their team who just happens to be the father of one of the boys. Once in Paris, Dr Twist and his pupils find themselves embroiled in the plot and trying to save their own skins. Among the crooks is veteran character actress Lili Palmer - here a drop-dead gorgeous, vivaceous twenty-six-year-old flirting outrageously with the befuddled headmaster.

Hey Hey USA
Made the year after "Good Morning Boys" in 1938, "Hey Hey USA" was obviously an attempt to break into the international market. Hay`s Dr Benjamin Twist starts the movie having obviously fallen on hard times. He is working as a luggage porter at the docks, and through a series of coincidences and the machinations of a couple of crooks heading for the US, he finds himself inadvertently stowed away on a steamer bound for New York.

One of the crooks is Bugs Leary, an explosively tempered gangster (today he would be classed as a psychopath and treated as a sinister presence) played by former Keystone Kop Edgar Kennedy. Kennedy had been a foil for Laurel and Hardy and the Marx Brothers and had made a career out of such on-the-brink-of-going-nuts characters.

With Leary`s assistance, Twist gets off the steamer without a passport when the two of them pass themselves off as part of a cattle shipment dressed in a pantomime costume. However this is not before Twist has ingratiated himself with the wealthy family of a spoilt brat who think he is a famous education expert setting up a school they will be able to send their darling little demon spawn to.

When the brat is kidnapped by Leary`s cohorts, misunderstandings and double-crossings follow as Dr Twist tries to deliver the ransom money and rescue his would-be charge from the kidnappers.

Modern sensibilities might be offended by some of the action in the movie - Twist and the brat fall down a chimney at one point and covered in soot are able to take cover in a black emancipation march. There is also a distinctly questionable line aboard ship. However, at that (more innocent) time, concepts of political correctness had yet to be invented and filmmakers should not be judged too harshly using modern criteria. Nonetheless offence may be taken so I would advise caution with this title.

Video

Good Morning Boys
Presented in the original 1.33:1 monochrome, the movie naturally suffers from its age and the fact it has passed through so many owners since its making. Gainsborough Pictures became part of the Rank Organisation, which in turn sold its film library on, passing through various hands until coming into the possession of current owners Carlton, who are responsible for these current releases. Carlton are to be congratulated on the work they have done releasing these titles and others from the Rank catalogue. Anyone who has seen the condition some of the materials had got into will appreciate the work that has gone into these editions of these classic movies.

Hey Hey USA
The movie is presented in its original 1.33:1 monochrome. Of all the Will Hay releases, this is possibly in the poorest condition, probably because of the perceived racist connotations. The movie seems to split into sections marked by increases or changes in contrast and brightness. The picture is very grainy as well.

Audio

Both films are presented in DD2.0 Mono, reproducing the original, basic mono mixes of the movies. There is little that can be done to improve the sound quality without distortion. These movies were made within ten years of the initial introduction of sound in movies and no great technical leaps in movie sound recording were made until after the second world war.

Features

Barring HOH subtitles, absolutely nothing.

Conclusion

Good Morning Boys
Great fun. If you appreciate vintage pre-war British comedy you won`t find better. If your favourite movies usually star Keanu Reeves, this could leave you cold, but give it a try. In spite of its age, I don`t think the movie has aged that much and in terms of the humour, not at all. A classic.

Hey Hey USA
Halliwell`s Film Guide describes this movie as misconceived. I`d go along with that. With its Americanised air, it is very different from the rest of Hay`s output. A curiosity.