The Black Sheep of Whitehall (1942)

Directors:

Basil Dearden
Will Hay

Writers:

John Dighton (writer)
Angus MacPhail (writer)

Release Date:

23 February 1942 (UK)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

Will Hay plays a Professor teaching at a correspondence school who discovers that a Nazi agent is trying...

Plot Keywords:

Disguise | Treason | Mistaken Identity | Ealing

Cast

Will Hay	...	Davis
John Mills	...	Bobby Jessop
Basil Sydney	...	Costello
Henry Hewitt	...	Professor Davys
Felix Aylmer	...	Crabtree
Owen Reynolds	...	Harman
Frank Cellier	...	Dr Innsbach
Joss Ambler	...	Sir John
Frank Allenby	...	Onslowe
Thora Hird	...	Joyce, Davis's secretary
Margaret Halstan	...	Matron
Barbara Valerie	...	Sister Spooner
Leslie Mitchell	...	Radio interviewer
George Woodbridge	...	Male Nurse
George Merritt	...	Stationmaster

Runtime:

80 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

Ealing Studios, Ealing, London, England, UK

Company:

Ealing Studios

Underrated

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.