Windbag the Sailor
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.
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Cast
Will Hay
Captain Ben Cutlet
Moore Marriott
Harbottle
Norma Varden
Olivia Potter-Porter
Dennis Wyndham
Maryatt
Amy Veness
Emma Harbottle
Graham Moffatt
Albert
Peter Gawthorne
Bit Role (uncredited)
George Merritt
Officer on Yacht
Harry Terry
Crew Member
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Reviews
John Chard
What shall we do with the drunken sailor?
Captain Ben Cutlet likes to spin yarns about all of his (fake) seafaring adventures, one day his false past comes to bite him as he is bluffed into captaining the Rob Roy at sea, the Rob Roy being barely sea worthy and doomed to be wrecked by a crafty shipping agent.
Windbag The Sailor is probably most notable for being the first teaming of Will Hay with Moore Marriott & Graham Moffatt, a trio that would go on to make classic British comedies Oh Mr Porter! and Ask A Policeman. Here it's evident that they are finding their way as regards what best works for them as a team, but a few mistimings here and there are easily forgiven once the hapless Cutlet (Hay) finds himself at sea completely incapable of captaining the ever thuggish looking crew. The usual madcap sequences from our bumbling trio dot themselves throughout the film, and there is no lack of oral gags as well, my favourite being one involving Hay explaining to a desert island native the power of the box (a radio acting as a god). Hay has done better and worse movies than this, but Windbag The Sailor just about holds its head above water (pun intended) because of the always lovable trio at its core, watchable fluff it be. 6/10
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