Review of Old Bones Of The River / Where There`s A Will

Introduction

This is a lesser well known set of films from the Will Hay legacy. "Where There`s A Will" was made in 1936 (and should not be confused with "Good Morning Boys", Hay`s most famous movie which carried the same title in its US release). This time he plays Benjamin Stubbins, an impecunious solicitor consistently on his uppers. Attempts to sponge off his wealthy relatives meet with disaster, then a gang of bank robbers use his office as a way into the bank downstairs. They use a claim to an inheritance to con their way into Stubbins` trust and implicate him in the robbery. He flees to his wealthy relatives in the country, but by a huge coincidence the bank robbers end up in the same place to lie low. Moore Marriott (as Harbottle) is conspicuous by his absence, but the similarity of production style between US comedies of this era and this movie is striking. It could easily have been a vehicle for Roland Young or Edward Everett Horton. The movie was directed by Hollywood legend William "One-shot" Beaudine, a tremendously prolific maker of B-pictures and westerns who would often move on to another scene even if the actors had blown their lines.

"Old Bones Of The River" (1938) gets into (currently) politically incorrect territory by mixing the headmaster with social unrest in one of the African colonies. It`s a shameless but quite harmless spoof of Edgar Wallace`s "Sanders of the River". Albert and Harbottle (Graham Moffatt and Moore Marriott) are present in this one. Frequent Hay collaborator Marcel Varnel directed.

Video

These movies have suffered with age, and that Carlton have been able to bring them to DVD at all must be something of a minor miracle. Both are presented in their original 1.33:1 and although detail has suffered from the passage of time and the images aren`t quite as sharp and contrasty as one would like, for any fan of old-time British comedy, these are must-haves.

Audio

As with the video, these films are victims of early technology and old age. Mind you, did you really expect a movie from 1936 to have a DTS soundtrack? Of course you didn`t and of course this hasn`t.

Features

Subtitles. See audio above for sarky comment but substitute any usual bonus material for DTS.

Conclusion

Grand old movies from a more innocent era. You can sneer at them if you will, but they were made at a time when the UK had a vibrant film-making industry turning out anything as good as Hollywood could.