Ask a Policeman (1939)

Country of Origin: UK
Year of Production: 1939
Running Times: 83 mins
Format: black and white     35mm
Ratio: 1.37:1
Sound: mono

PRODUCTION
Production Company: Gainsborough Pictures
In Charge of Production: Maurice Ostrer (uncredited)
Producer: Edward Black (uncredited)

SCRIPT
Script: Edgar Marriott, Val Guest, John Orton (uncredited)
Story: Sidney Gilliat
Script Editor: Frank Launder (uncredited)

DIRECTION
Director: Marcel Varnel

PHOTOGRAPHY
Director of Photography: Derick Williams
2nd Unit Photography: Jack Parry (uncredited)
2nd Unit Assistant Camera: George Hill (uncredited)

EDITING AND POST PRODUCTION
Editors: R.E. Dearing
Cutting: Alfred Roome

MUSIC
Music Director: Louis Levy

SOUND
Sound Recordist: S. Wiles
Sound Recorded At: Islington, London, England

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Settings: Vetchinsky (real name: Alex Vetchinsky)

MISCELLANEOUS
Production Assistant: Roy Ward Baker (uncredited)

CAST
Will Hay (Sergeant Samuel Dudfoot)
Graham Moffatt (Albert Brown)
Moore Marriott (Jerry Harbottle/Harbottle Sr)
Glennis Lorrimer (Emily Martin)
Peter Gawthorne (Chief Constable John Cronshaw)
Charles Oliver (Squire Montague Pennington)
Herbert Lomas (coastguard)
Patrick Aherne (motorist (uncredited))
Cyril Chamberlain (uncredited)
Desmond Llewelyn (headless horseman (uncredited))

Turnbottom Round may be proud of its record as a village with no crime, but it doesn't do much for the pride of the local constabulary - especially when it's realised that the only reason that the village is crime free is because Sergeant Dudfoot and his two constables, Jerry and Harbottle are so inept that they fail to notice what's going onaround them. They have a lot to prove when they go up against a smuggling ring - and a frightening headless horseman...

Will Hay had flirted with the fake ghost comedy in the classic Oh Mr Porter! (1937), in which there was much talk of the spectral One-Eyed Jack, though it wasn't until Ask a Policeman that the much loved comic entered that strange and peculiarly British world opened up by the success of Arnold Riley's play The Ghost Train (1931) - the horror film that isn't. This is great fun, as most Will Hay films are, though it almost goes without saying that there turn out to be no real ghosts at all.

USA
Theatrical Distributor: MGM

UK
Rating: U

TIMELINE

1980
February
28: UK - television broadcast (on BBC 2)

1985
April
7: UK - television broadcast (on BBC 2)

1988
February
18: UK - television broadcast (on BBC1)

1990
July
25: UK - television broadcast (on BBC 2)

1992
May
16: UK - television broadcast (on BBC 2)

1994
June
20: UK - television broadcast (on BBC 2)

REMAKE
The Boys In Blue (1982)

MAGAZINES

Film Weekly vol.21 no.554 (27 May 1939) p.31 (UK)
review

Kinematograph Weekly no.1670 (20 April 1939) p.25 (UK)
review

Kinematograph Weekly no.1847 (10 September 1942) (UK)
review

Monthly Film Bulletin vol.6 no.65 (May 1939) p.91 (UK)
review

Motion Picture Herald vol.135 no.4 (29 April 1939) p.54 (USA)
review

Today's Cinema vol.52 no.4195 (19 April 1939) p.18
review

Today's Cinema vol.59 no.4772 (8 September 1942) p.9 (UK)
review

BOOKS

The British Film Catalogue 1895-1985: A Reference Guide by Denis Gifford (London: David & Charles (1986)  ISBN: 0715388355)
catalogue number: 09582

police, headless horsemen, smugglers, fake ghosts

Last Updated: 15 October, 2008