Will Hay
Also Known As: William Thomson Hay
Biography: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia William Thomson "Will" Hay (6 December 1888 – 18 April 1949) was an English comedian, actor, film director and amateur astronomer. Description above from the Wikipedia article Will Hay, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Department: Acting
Place of Birth: Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham, England, UK
Birthday: December 05, 1888
Deathday: April 18, 1949
Adult: No
Gender: Male
Popularity:
Known For:
Ask a Policeman
Overview: The mirthful adventures of Police-Sergeant Samuel Dudfoot and his two constables, Albert Brown and Jeremias Harbottle, who stage a fabricated crime-wave to save their jobs---and then find themselves involved in the real thing.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1939-04-29
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Oh, Mr. Porter!
Overview: Comedy in which a bungling railway worker is given the job of stationmaster at a rundown station in rural Ireland, where his sidekicks are a toothless old gaffer and a portly young loudmouth. Hilarious adventures ensue, including a locomotive chase after gunrunners make off with a train.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1937-10-05
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Hitler: The Comedy Years
Overview: A documentary about the portrayal of Adolf Hitler in popular culture.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2007-05-10
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Convict 99
Overview: A disgraced school master, Benjamin Twist, is mistaken for a tough prison governor and assigned the charge of a prison for particularly hardened criminals. Believing he is being sent to a school rather than a prison, he celebrates accordingly only to find that his drunkenness accidently lands him on the wrong side of the prison bars. The Governorship is eventually restored to him, and he sets about popularising himself amongst the convicts by turning a blind eye to their shady dealings.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1938-09-26
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Good Morning, Boys!
Overview: Dr. Benjamin Twist (Hay) and his pupils become involved with art thieves on a trip to Paris. Hay’s seamy schoolmaster act is supported by a fine cast including Charles Hawtrey and Lilli Palmer.
Genres: Comedy Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1937-05-27
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Where There's a Will
Overview: Will Hay plays the pennyless, bungling solicitor Benjamin Stubbins, who arrives at his office to find his insolent office boy (Graham Moffatt) with his feet up on the desk, reading a wild west magazine, which Hay confiscates so that he can read it later. Stubbins later takes a job from a group of Americans who claim they want him to track down some ancestors of theirs in Scotland. In reality however they want to use his office so they can rob a safe in the room immediately below his office. Stubbins takes the job (which is designed to keep him out of the office). In the end Stubbins realises his mistake and at a Christmas Eve fancy dress party he informs a group of carol singing policeman about the Americans nefarious activities
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1936-08-10
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My Learned Friend
Overview: An insane murderer is on the loose, and gunning for the men who put him away. Will Hay is on the list, and co-opts Claude Hulbert to try and stop him from meeting a grisly end.
Genres: Comedy Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1943-10-25
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Windbag the Sailor
Overview: Will Hay plays a bragging sea captain whose maritime experience actually extends to navigating a coal barge down inland waterways. His tall tales catch him out when he is co-erced into commanding an unseaworthy ship by an unscrupulous shipping agent who means to have it wrecked. This was the first film to couple Will Hay with both Moore Marriott and Graham Moffatt.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1936-12-01
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Old Bones of the River
Overview: Hay plays Professor Benjamin Tibbetts, representative of the Teaching & Welfare Institution for the Reformation of Pagans (otherwise known as T.W.I.R.P for short), and dedicated to spreading education amongst the natives of colonial Africa. As he arrives (still trying to learn the native language via recordings), Professor Tibbetts is tricked into sneaking a gin still into the country by a local prince. Later, Tibbetts makes his way to Kombooli High, where his students wear Eton collars alongside their native garb and Tibbetts finds himself sporting a mortarboard and safari shorts due to the heat. When the Commissioner falls ill with a dose of malaria, Tibbetts is forced to take over his duties, which include collecting the taxes. Upriver, he finds an old paddlesteamer operated by Harbottle (Moore Marriott) and Albert (Graham Moffatt) and the threesome rescue a baby from death by sacrifice.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1938-12-01
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Boys Will Be Boys
Overview: Alec Smart, who is engaged teaching in a prison, applies for the job of headmaster at a nearby public school to replace the previous headmaster who has been convicted of writing forged cheques and has just been sent to prison. Smart appeals to the Governor to write him a good reference which he pretends to. Afterwards he writes his real recommendation which is very negative about Smart's talents. The trustee who works as the Governor's secretary, Faker Brown, "accidentally" gets the two letters mixed up and delivers the one praising Smart. On the basis of the letter, Lady Dorking, the who runs the Board of Governors appoints Smart to the job. This angers her deputy, Colonel Crableigh, who had favoured promoting his nephew, the Deputy head.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-07-01
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The Ghost of St. Michael's
Overview: Will Hay, back in his role as a hapless teacher, is hired by a grim school in remotest Scotland. The school soon starts to be haunted by a legendary ghost, whose spectral bagpipes signal the death of one of the staff. Hay, assisted by Claude Hulbert and Charles Hawtrey, has to unravel the mystery before he becomes the next victim.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1941-04-01
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Where's That Fire
Overview: Capt Viking and his incompetent fire crew accidentally foil a plot to steal the crown jewels.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1939-06-29
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Dandy Dick
Overview: The Very Reverend Richard Jedd has a problem: the church spire, now in a parlous state of repair, will cost nearly £1,000 to fix. When various money-raising schemes go awry, he is persuaded to waive his principles and bet what’s left of his savings on Dandy Dick, a 10-1 odds-on at the local races. A simple tonic to enhance the nag’s performance seems a good idea… but when the butler decides to intervene, the respectable clergyman finds himself in the middle of a doping scandal – and worse!
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-03-01
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The Black Sheep of Whitehall
Overview: A professor teaching at a correspondence school discovers that a Nazi agent is trying to prevent a trade treaty being signed between England and South America.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1942-02-23
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The Goose Steps Out
Overview: Schoolteacher William Potts is the double of a captured German spy, so he is sent to Germany by British Intelligence to obtain the plans of a new secret weapon, causing chaos in a Hitler Youth school in the process.
Genres: Comedy War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1942-08-01
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Those Were the Days
Overview: A farce based on Arthur Wing Pinero's play 'The Magistrate' in which the son (John Mills) of a stern magistrate (Will Hay) visits a music hall against the wishes of his father. In true farcical style, the magistrate too ends up at the music hall, and before long all the characters are trying not to avoid each other... Mainly notable (a) because of its depiction of the music hall as seen by a generation which knew it intimately (b) because of its use of music hall acts of the time and (c) because it gave Will Hay his first film role.
Genres: Music Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1934-04-02
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Hey! Hey! USA
Overview: While working as a porter Benjamin Twists mistakenly ends up on a cruise ship heading for the USA. Upon landing on the American coast Twist takes up work as a professor.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1938-10-01
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Radio Parade of 1935
Overview: One of the first screen outings for Will Hay. Hay plays the Director General of the National Broadcasting Group (NBG) who hides away in his office unaware that the general feeling about his programming is that it is too high-brow and the public are not happy. However, when he discovers this he decides to take action and promotes Jimmy, his Head of the Complaints Department, to Programme Director. Jimmy decides that a series of variety spectaculars are what the public want and sets about hiring the acts. But obstacles are put in his way and he discovers that the NBG has its own cluster of wannabe variety stars.
Genres: Music Romance Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1934-12-12
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The Big Blockade
Overview: Wartime propaganda piece reporting on the success of the economic blockade of Germany in the early years of the war.
Genres: Drama War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1942-01-19
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Go to Blazes
Overview: Ministry of Information-sponsored comedy short showing wartime audiences how to deal with the threat of incendiary bombs.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1942-01-01
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Camera Interviews: Will Hay
Overview: Will Hay – the schoolmaster laughter-maker at the recent Command Performance. When the cat's away the mice will play.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1928-12-15
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To See Such Fun
Overview: Compilation of classic British comedy moments
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1977-11-01
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Will Hay and the Stars
Overview: As well as being one of Britain's most popular stage and screen comedians, Will Hay was an avid astronomer who made history in 1933 when he discovered a spot on Saturn. This short film showcases the lesser-known side of this comedy legend.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2016-11-07
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