| DVD: www.amazon.com thefilmarchive.org Convict 99 is a 1938 British comedy film directed by Marcel Varnel and starring British comedian Will Hay and Googie Withers. 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. Unknowingly, Twist is confused at the Labour Exchange for 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 sentenced to seven years for forgery, Twist is soon discovered to be the new Prison Governor, and once put in his (dubilously) 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 one of the prisoners absconds with the entire prison funds. Twist and some of the convicts head to Limehouse, in east London to catch the errant prisoner, recover the lost funds and successfully break into a bank in order to return the funds. Cast Will Hay - Dr Benjamin Twist Moore Marriott - Jerry the Mole Graham Moffatt - Albert Googie Withers - Lottie "the Baroness" Peter Gawthorne - Sir ... |
