''Good Morning, Boys!'' is a 1937 British

comedy film The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the o ...

directed by

Marcel Varnel Marcel Varnel (16 October 1892 – 13 July 1947) was a French film director, notable 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. Varnel st ...

and featuring Will Hay,

Graham Moffatt Graham Victor Harold Moffatt (6 December 1919 – 2 July 1965) was an English comedic character actor. He is best known for a number of films where he appeared with Will Hay and Moore Marriott as 'Albert': a plump cheekily insolent street-savvy ...

Martita Hunt Martita Edith Hunt (30 January 190013 June 1969) was an Argentine-born British theatre and film actress. She had a dominant stage presence and played a wide range of powerful characters. She is best remembered for her performance as Miss Havis ...

Lilli Palmer Lilli Palmer (; born Lilli Marie Peiser; 24 May 1914 – 27 January 1986) was a German actress and writer. After beginning her career in British films in the 1930s, she would later transition to major Hollywood productions, earning a Golden Glob ...

and

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-up ...

. It was made at the Gainsborough Studios in

Islington Islington ( ) is an inner-city area of north London, England, within the wider London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's #Islington High Street, High Street to Highbury Fields ...

. The film marked the first appearance of both

and Charles Hawtrey in a Will Hay film, both of whom would go onto act as straight men to Hay in his future films.

Plot

Will Hay plays the roguish headmaster, Dr Twist, of a dubious boarding school for boys. Twist bets on the

horses The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 milli ...

with his pupils and teaches them little. Colonel Willoughby-Gore attempts to sack the incompetent Twist but is foiled when he and his boys, after fraudulently gaining resounding success in a French examination, are invited to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

by the French ministry of education. In Paris they become involved with a gang of criminals, including escaped convict Arty Jones, father of one of the boys, and Yvette, a night club singer, who are attempting to steal the ''

Mona Lisa The ''Mona Lisa'' is a half-length portrait painting by the Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci. Considered an archetypal masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance, it has been described as "the best known, the most visited, the most written about, ...

'' from the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...

and replace it with a duplicate.

Cast

* Will Hay as Dr. Benjamin Twist *

as Lady Bagshott *

as Colonel Willoughby-Gore *

as Albert Brown * Fewlass Llewellyn as The Dean * Mark Daly as Arty Jones * Peter Godfrey as Cliquot * C. Denier Warren as Minister of Education *

as Yvette * Charles Hawtrey as Septimus * George Ravenscroft as One of The Boys

Critical reception

Allmovie AllMovie (previously All Movie Guide) is an online database with information about films, television programs, television series, and screen actors. , AllMovie.com and the AllMovie consumer brand are owned by RhythmOne. History AllMovie was ...

wrote, "the magnificent Will Hay re-creates his vaudeville characterization of a supercilious schoolmaster...But the inimitable, toothless

Moore Marriott George Thomas Moore Marriott (14 September 1885 – 11 December 1949) was an English character actor best remembered for the series of films he made with Will Hay. His first appearance with Hay was in the film '' Dandy Dick'' (1935), but he ...

(aka "Harbottle") is conspicuous by his absence."

References

Bibliography

* Low, Rachael. ''Filmmaking in 1930s Britain''. George Allen & Unwin, 1985. * Wood, Linda. ''British Films, 1927-1939''. British Film Institute, 1986.

External links

* 1937 films 1930s crime comedy films British black-and-white films 1930s English-language films British crime comedy films Films about educators Films set in schools Films set in England Films set in London Films set in Paris Islington Studios films Gainsborough Pictures films Films directed by Marcel Varnel Films with screenplays by Marriott Edgar Films scored by Louis Levy Films scored by Jack Beaver 1937 comedy films 1930s British films English-language crime comedy films {{1930s-UK-comedy-film-stub