The Ghost of St. Michael's (1941)

The fact that Will Hay is playing an incompetent school teacher isn't much of a surprise. After all, he played this sort of guy in several films. However, what makes this one unusual is that the comedy becomes a murder mystery!When the film begins, Will Lamb (Hay) is on his way to a boys school in Northern Scotland. This actually makes a lot of sense, as children throughout England were either sent abroad or to the most rural portions of Britain in order to avoid the German blitz. In this case, an entire school has been packed off to an old castle on the Island of Skye...about as remote a location as you can get! However, very soon it's apparent that Lamb is an idiot and can't teach much of anything well but before he can get the sack, the headmaster is dead--either a suicide or murder. The new headmaster knows Lamb and his incompetence and his first act is to fire Lamb. But, very soon after, this new headmaster is also dead...poisoned just like the first one. So, Lamb, one of the professors and some of the students decide to investigate. But they are warned repeatedly about some sort of ghost and some bagpipes...and what do they have to do with any of this?!This is a pretty good film, though compared to some of Hays' other films, comedy is less important to the film and the murder mystery often takes precedence. And, considering it was made during WWII, the Nazi angle didn't come as much of a surprise. Definitely a product of its times but a good one as well...one that stands up pretty well today.By the way, Hay playing an incompetent science teacher is rather funny, as in real life he was, in addition to being an actor, an engineer and astronomer!

I thoroughly enjoyed this Will Hay comedy, which successfully combines the school story and the requisite nod to wartime concerns with the spoof haunting theme that had featured in some of his most successful earlier work. The old team of Graham Moffat and Moore Marriott are here absent, but Hay is teamed very effectively with chinless Claude Hulbert and a young Charles Hawtrey as a precocious schoolboy. Hay's protagonist treads a skilfully effective line between annoying (we relish watching him get taken down a peg, rather than wincing) and sympathetic, while Hawtrey's gadfly-like persistence as a boy far brighter than his teachers is equally well judged, and Claude Hulbert makes ineffectuality likable.The film has its share of broad comedy (watch for what Hay does with that piglet...) but often avoids obvious expectations, and is the funnier for it. The suspiciously Teutonic teacher is not, of course, what he seems; the ghost is, of course, not what it seems either; and the motivation which ultimately enlists the boys on the side of their erstwhile petty dictator is certainly not the type customary in school stories! Overall "The Ghost of St Michael's" is a blend of guffaw-rich visual humour with accomplished misdirection to produce a very appropriate vehicle for its star. The beginning is a little hit and miss, but the film is still full of laugh-out-loud moments.

Many of the other reviewers here seem pretty well versed on the star and these kind of films, but I'm approaching both Hay and British comedies from this era in general as a newbie. Judging from the plot synopsis written here, I was expecting a merging of comedy with old dark house horror along the lines of HOLD THAT GHOST (made the same year in the States), but this is pretty much just a straight comedy that happens to take place in a spooky setting. During WWII, St. Michael's school for boys has to move to a more secure location - a large, gloomy, remote, rat-infested castle located in Isle of Skye in Scotland. Staff and students show up and get settled in, and uppity, bumbling, fast-talking teacher Will Lamb (Will Hay) is immediately assigned the position of science teacher despite being grossly incompetent to handle the position. Lamb is quickly befriended by a goofy colleague (Claude Hulbert) and, because of his unconventional approach and manner, manages to win over the boys in his class. But soon enough, multiple problems arise for our hapless hero. For starters, nasty teacher Mr. Humphries (Raymond Huntley), who seems a little overly eager to climb the professional ladder, tries to convince the school headmaster (Felix Aylmer) to fire him. Secondly, because of its sordid history, the creepy castle caretaker (John Laurie) seems dead certain that the castle is haunted by a malignant spirit. Third, several people end up getting killed, with the ominous "phantom pipes" (bagpipes) signaling each death. Who's responsible; a vengeful human or a centuries-old ghost?One noticeable difference between this and concurrent comedies from the States is the presentation of Hay's character. You didn't too often see (in American movies from this period) an authority figure/bumbling hero who flagrantly lies, is incompetent in his line of work, drinks whiskey with a bunch of underage students and acts like he's going to haul off and slap or kick his pupils when they say something he doesn't like. Yet somehow, Hay manages to come off as utterly charming and likable. You can see why the pupils take a liking to him. The entire supporting cast; particularly Aylmer and Charles Hawtrey, as the brainy and outspoken student Percy, was excellent. As far as this functioning as a murder-mystery, it does a fairly good job of that as well. There's a lively finale making good use of trap doors and secret passageways. When the killer's identity is revealed it's also a genuine surprise. Though obviously a low-budget and set-bound production, it's fairly well staged and has a decent screenplay with plenty of amusing dialogue and good comic situations to put our heroes in. All in all, it's a pleasant and entertaining way to spend 78 minutes of your time.

I like all of Will Hay's films, but apart from 'Oh, Mr Porter,' this is my favourite. It is jam packed with funny one-liners and comic situations and gives Hay full reign to play his seedy music hall schoolmaster. A wee gem of a film.