Convict 99
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| Convict 99 | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Directed by | Marcel Varnel |
| Produced by | Edward Black |
| Written by | Cyril Campion Jack Davis Jr Marriott Edgar Val Guest Ralph Smart |
| Starring | Will Hay Graham Moffatt Moore Marriott Googie Withers |
| Cinematography | Arthur Crabtree |
| Edited by | R.E. Dearing |
| Distributed by | Gainsborough Pictures |
|
Release dates
|
26 September 1938 |
|
Running time
|
91 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
Convict 99 is a 1938 British comedy film directed by Marcel Varnel and starring British comedian Will Hay and Googie Withers.
Plot
Incompetent Dr Benjamin Twist (Will Hay) is dismissed from his job as headmaster at St. Michaels' 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 Blakedown 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.
Things take a turn for the worse, when the recaptured Slessor, aided by a phoney baroness who accuses Twist of attempted rape, escapes again with a signed cheque. Altering the figures, he draws the entire prison funds from the bank. Twist and some of the convicts head in a prison van to Limehouse, in east London, to catch Slessor, recover the lost funds and then successfully break into the bank in the middle of the night to return the money.
Cast
- Will Hay - Dr Benjamin Twist
- Moore Marriott - Jerry the Mole
- Graham Moffatt - Albert
- Googie Withers - Lottie "the Baroness"
- Peter Gawthorne - Sir Cyril
- Basil Radford - Deputy Governor
- Dennis Wyndham - Head Warder
- Wilfred Walter - Max Slessor
- Alf Goddard - Sykes
- Basil McGrail - Bates
- Kathleen Harrison - Mable
- Roddy McDowall - Jimmy
- Teddy Brown - Slim Charlie
- Bertha Belmore - Tiara Lady
- George Merritt - Patrolman
- Roy Emerton - John Benjamin
- Leonard Sharp - Convict
