CONVICT 99 (1938) Will Hay, Moore Marriott & Googie Withers | Comedy | B&W

Convict 99 is a 1938 British comedy film directed by Marcel Varnel and starring Will Hay, Moore Marriott, Graham Moffatt and Googie Withers.

SYNOPSIS
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.

Incompetent Dr Benjamin Twist (Will Hay) is dismissed from his job as headmaster at St. Michael's School (the school returns in a later film The Ghost of St. Michael's), and applies for a job in another school.

Going for interview, he is called into another office where they are expecting John Benjamin, a strict prison governor recently arrived from Australia who is applying for the vacancy at Blackdown Prison in Devon. On the way to what Twist believes is the school, he becomes drunk, and on arrival is mistaken for Max Slessor, a prisoner who had escaped during a jailbreak.

Designated Convict 99 and in for seven years for forgery, Twist is soon discovered to be the new Prison Governor, and once put in his (dubiously) rightful place embarks on a programme to make the prison a more friendly place for the prisoners, funding it from the proceeds of a football pools win and stock market investments.

CAST & CREW
Will Hay as Dr Benjamin Twist
Moore Marriott as Jerry the Mole
Graham Moffatt as Albert
Googie Withers as Lottie "the Baroness"
Peter Gawthorne as Sir Cyril
Basil Radford as Deputy Governor
Dennis Wyndham as Head Warder
Wilfred Walter as Max Slessor
Alf Goddard as Sykes
Basil McGrail as Bates
Kathleen Harrison as Mable
Roddy McDowall as Jimmy
Teddy Brown as Slim Charlie
Bertha Belmore as Tiara Lady
George Merritt as Patrolman
Roy Emerton as John Benjamin
Leonard Sharp as Convict
Garry Marsh as Johnson

Directed by Marcel Varnel
Written by Cyril Campion, Jack Davis Jr, Marriott Edgar, Val Guest, Ralph Smart
Produced by Edward Black
Cinematography Arthur Crabtree
Edited by R. E. Dearing
Distributed by Gainsborough Pictures
Release date 26 September 1938
Running time 91 minutes
Country United Kingdom
Language English