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Convict 99
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Convict 99 | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Directed by | Marcel Varnel |
| Produced by | Edward Black |
| Written by | Jack Davis Jr Marriott Edgar Val Guest Ralph Smart |
| Starring | Will Hay Graham Moffatt Moore Marriott Googie Withers |
| Cinematography | Arthur Crabtree |
| Editing by | R.E. Dearing |
| Distributed by | Gainsborough Pictures |
| Release date(s) | 26 September 1938 |
| Running time | 91 minutes |
| Country |  UK |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Convict 99 is a comedy film from 1938, starring British comedian Will Hay and directed by Marcel Varnel.
Incopetent Dr. Benjamin Twist (Will Hay) is dismissed from his job as headmaster in 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, who is applying for the vacancy of the fictious 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 programe 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 London to catch the errant prisoner, recover the lost funds and sucsesfully break into a bank in order to return the funds.
Hays' two main co-stars, Graham Moffatt and Moore Marriott, appear in the forms of Albert the Prison Guard and Convict 198, alias Jerry the Mole.
Roddy McDowall appears in the uncredited role of Jimmy.