''Hey! Hey! USA'' is a 1938 British

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

starring comedian

Will Hay William Thomson Hay (6 December 1888 – 18 April 1949) was an English comedian who wrote and acted in a schoolmaster sketch that later transferred to the screen, where he also played other authority figures with comic failings. His film ''Oh ...

Edgar Kennedy Edgar Livingston Kennedy (April 26, 1890 – November 9, 1948) was an American comedic character actor who appeared in at least 500 films during the silent and sound eras. Professionally, he was known as "Slow Burn", owing to his ability to por ...

and Eddie Ryan. Hay appears as Benjamin Twist, a porter who accidentally finds himself on a ship bound for the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. The film features an early appearance by child actor

Roddy McDowall Roderick Andrew Anthony Jude McDowall (17 September 1928 – 4 October 1998) was a British actor, photographer and film director. He began his acting career as a child in England, and then in the United States, in ''How Green Was My Valley'' (1 ...

, before he went to live in America.

Plot outline

Benjamin Twist, a teacher working during school holidays as a ship's porter ends up on a ship bound for America and impersonating a professor, Phineas Tavistock. Along with American gangster and stowaway Bugs Leary (

), Twist finds himself entangled in a plot to kidnap the son of a millionaire whom 'Professor' Tavistock is teaching. Things are further complicated by the fact that two sets of gangsters are attempting to get their hands on the ransom money, which Twist is given to hand over.

Cast

- Benjamin Twist/Professor Phineas Tavistock *

- Bugs Leary * David Burns - Tony Ricardo * Eddie Ryan - Ace Marco *

Fred Duprez Fred Duprez (September 6, 1884 – October 27, 1938) was an American actor, comedian and singer who performed in vaudeville, phonograph record and film. He made phonograph recordings in the US and the UK in the 1900s, 1910s, and 1920s. Most of t ...

- Cyrus Schultz * Paddy Reynolds - Mrs Schultz * Tommy Bupp - Bertie Schultz *

Arthur Goullet Arthur Goullet (1894–1978) was a British stage, film and television actor. He played the role of Sebastian Moran in the 1937 Sherlock Holmes film '' Silver Blaze''.Nollen p.298 Selected filmography * '' Down River'' (1931) * '' A Gentleman o ...

- Glove Johnson *

Gibb McLaughlin George McLoughlin (19 July 1879 – 30 June 1961), known professionally as Gibb McLaughlin, was an English film and stage actor. Early days McLaughlin was born in Sunderland, County Durham, England in 1879. For about 10 years he was a sales ...

- Steward *

Eddie Pola Edward Pola (June 23, 1907 – November 3, 1995)Passenger list, S.S. ''Transylvania'', port of New York, 20 August 1931. was an actor, radio/television producer, and songwriter. Pola was born Sidney Edward Pollacsek in New York City, the son of Ida ...

- Broadcast Announcer *

- Boy *

Peter Gawthorne Peter Gawthorne (1 September 1884 – 17 March 1962) was an Anglo-Irish actor, probably best known for his roles in the films of Will Hay and other popular British comedians of the 1930s and 1940s. Gawthorne was one of Britain's most called-upo ...

- Ship's Captain * Charlie Hall - Leary's Pal * Charles Oliver - Curly * Danny Green - McGuire, the Chicago cop *

John Salew John Rylett Salew (1902 (some sources state 1 January 1897)14 September 1961) was an English stage film and TV actor. Salew made the transition from stage to films in 1939, and according to Allmovie, "the manpower shortage during WWII enabled ...

(Uncredited) * Hugh McDermott (Uncredited)

Critical reception

Sky Movies wrote, "incomparable Will Hay reprises his splendidly shifty Dr Benjamin Twist character (the incompetent headmaster of St Michael's) in this breezy British comedy set in a quaintly observed America full of gun-toting gangsters. Comic stalwart Edgar Kennedy provides slow-burning support under the direction of

Marcel Varnel Marcel Varnel (16 October 1892 – 13 July 1947) was French film director, notably however for his career in the United States and England as a director of plays and films Biography He was born Marcel Hyacinthe le Bozec in Paris, France. Va ...

, the dapper Frenchman who made most of Hay's biggest successes. "

Bibliography

* Slide, Anthony. Banned in the USA': British Films in the United States and their Censorship, 1933-1960''. I.B. Tauris & Co, 1998.

External links

References

British comedy films 1938 films British black-and-white films 1938 comedy films Films directed by Marcel Varnel Compositions by Charles Williams 1930s British films {{1930s-UK-comedy-film-stub