Convict 99

Produced byEdward BlackStarringCinematographyArthur CrabtreeEdited byR. E. DearingDistributed byGainsborough Pictures91 minutesCountryUnited KingdomLanguageEnglish

Convict 99 is a 1938 British comedy film directed by Marcel Varnel and starring Will Hay, Moore Marriott, Graham Moffatt and Googie Withers.

Plot

Incompetent Dr Benjamin Twist (Will Hay) is dismissed from his job as headmaster at St. Michael's 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 Blackdown 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 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 as Dr Benjamin Twist
• Moore Marriott as Jerry the Mole
• Graham Moffatt as Albert
• Googie Withers as Lottie "the Baroness"
• Peter Gawthorne as Sir Cyril
• Basil Radford as Deputy Governor
• Dennis Wyndham as Head Warder
• Wilfred Walter as Max Slessor
• Alf Goddard as Sykes
• Basil McGrail as Bates
• Kathleen Harrison as Mable
• Roddy McDowall as Jimmy
• Teddy Brown as Slim Charlie
• Bertha Belmore as Tiara Lady
• George Merritt as Patrolman
• Roy Emerton as John Benjamin
• Leonard Sharp as Convict
• Garry Marsh as Johnson

External links

• Convict 99 at IMDb
• Analysis of Convict 99 as a prison movie
• Screenonline Review