Will Hay, Britain’s greatest film comedian
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Remakes of Will Hay Films
A few people have thought that they could revive Will Hay’s films by remaking them. However, lacking Will Hay and all his regular cast and crew, the standard was not what one would have hoped for.
There follows a list of remakes and some brief comments. Any more information, reviews or details of other remakes or scenes pinched from Will Hay films would be appreciated.
It should be noted that Jimmy Perry, whenever he talks about the inspiration for Dad’s Army, always recalls the Hay–Moffatt–Marriott triumvirate, which he reenacted as Lowe–LeMesurier–Lavender (although none of them were as decrepid as Marriott’s creation). Further, in his later sitcom Oh, Dr Beeching, he used the theme to Oh, Mr Porter with the words adjusted approximately:
Oh Dr Beeching!
What have you done?
There used to be lots of trains to catch,
But soon there will be none.I’ll have to buy a bicycle,
’cause I can’t afford a car.
Oh Dr Beeching!
What a silly man you are
Thus, the inspiration of Will Hay lived well into the television era. I have yet to see any more recent examples that truly convince. However, some aspects of the interaction in The Office often seems to follow Will Hay’s formula.
1953 Top of the Form John Paddy Carstairs Good Morning Boys Looks like a scene-for-scene
remake, almost joke-for-joke. Grossly inferior to
the timeless Will Hay version, based on the clips I’ve seen
in a Best
of British documentary. This film stars Ronnie Corbett. See the listing on the
Internet
Movie Database for cast details etc. Rating: ??/5. 1982 The Boys in Blue Val Guest Ask a Policeman London Weekend
Television. They've done some wonderful things in their time.
Well, I can't
think of any at the moment, but I know that Boys in Blue isn't
one of them. The idea was to remake Ask a Policeman with
the comedy geniuses Tommy Cannon and Bobby Ball. Eric Sykes also
appears. Grossly inferior to the
timeless Will Hay version, and far more dated. Val Guest should
be ashamed of himself. As a point of local interest
to me, the opening painting theft was filmed in the exhibition hall
of Watford Central Library. See the listing on the
Internet
Movie Database for cast details etc. This film used
to be available on video,
and is now on DVD! Rating: 1/5.