In the 1930s the comedy teams that enjoyed the most popularity in the U.S and possibly England were the Marx Brothers and Laurel and Hardy, especially as Stan Laurel was a British citizen by birth. But the English could point to their own master trio of comedians who made over six films together: Will Hay, Moore Marriott, and Graham Moffatt. Hay has been compared to Groucho Marx as both are the "authority figures" who ooze incompetence (but are sharp anyway). There the similarities really end - Marriott always played Harbottle, and aged, toothless man who really does not fit as the counterpart of Chico, and Moffatt is the fat young man who is actually sharper than Hay but moves to his own speed and agenda. Here, when confronted with a furious chief constable for the county that the three are policemen in, Moffatt finds his girlfriend is ready for a night at the pictures and politely wishes the angry official a good night while he takes her out. Harpo might have done something like that but faster and without words.
Hay, as Chief Dudfoot, has just got national attention for having the best record for over a decade of no crime being committed in his township. Unfortunately this is not due to diligence but to slackness and even some dishonesty (as he denies any poaching in his district we see Marriott and Moffatt passing with some dead birds and guns by the open window in the background). However, except for some blundering by the three with the printed script the BBC gave Hay, and some nearly too true comments by Marriott, the radio broadcast is a success. Even some local worthies, such as the local squire are there to share in the moment. Then the broadcast is ended suddenly.
Unfortunately the broadcast has brought the situation of how the police under Hay have really worked to the Chief Constable. He figures that it just does not make sense that absolutely no crime has been committed in the last decade. He sends a warning of a surprise visit. Naturally Hay and his deputies decide to do something to show they are doing their job - setting up a speed trap. Of course they really do not know anything about speed traps, and allow one young man to leave who lacked his driver's license or car insurance information (he never even got insured), while the second person they catch (and knock out) is...yes, the Chief Constable.
The film follows the foredoomed attempts by Hay, Marriott, and Moffatt to get something accomplished - in this case trying to look like they are succeeding in tracking down local smugglers. But they keep running into all sorts of problems concerning a mysterious beacon light (that looks like it was located at the roof of their police station), and a ghostlike hearse driven by a headless horseman (Desmond Llewellen, later to be "Q" in the first James Bond films, actually is the headless horseman but another actor is supposed to be the horseman later on). One of the best moments is when Hay learns from Marriott of an old rhyme about a smugglers' cave. Hay has to ask the father of Marriott (he looks so old Hay tells him not to worry about Balaclava!) what the last line is, and hears one of the most ridiculous concluding lines of a four line piece of poetry ever spoken.
There are other gems. Looking in old record books for some crime to create a crime wave with Hay reads about one poor soul who stole one sheep and was drawn and quartered two centuries before. Then he reads of a contemporary who threw his shrew of a wife over a cliff and killed her. He got fined four pence.
The fun continues to an end where the chase ends at a car testing track with a truck full of contraband pursued by a bus full of people (don't ask) and then the Chief Constable and his men in patrol cars. Even when the cars stop running the chase is left continuing as the film ends. Somehow it is fitting.
Hay, as Chief Dudfoot, has just got national attention for having the best record for over a decade of no crime being committed in his township. Unfortunately this is not due to diligence but to slackness and even some dishonesty (as he denies any poaching in his district we see Marriott and Moffatt passing with some dead birds and guns by the open window in the background). However, except for some blundering by the three with the printed script the BBC gave Hay, and some nearly too true comments by Marriott, the radio broadcast is a success. Even some local worthies, such as the local squire are there to share in the moment. Then the broadcast is ended suddenly.
Unfortunately the broadcast has brought the situation of how the police under Hay have really worked to the Chief Constable. He figures that it just does not make sense that absolutely no crime has been committed in the last decade. He sends a warning of a surprise visit. Naturally Hay and his deputies decide to do something to show they are doing their job - setting up a speed trap. Of course they really do not know anything about speed traps, and allow one young man to leave who lacked his driver's license or car insurance information (he never even got insured), while the second person they catch (and knock out) is...yes, the Chief Constable.
The film follows the foredoomed attempts by Hay, Marriott, and Moffatt to get something accomplished - in this case trying to look like they are succeeding in tracking down local smugglers. But they keep running into all sorts of problems concerning a mysterious beacon light (that looks like it was located at the roof of their police station), and a ghostlike hearse driven by a headless horseman (Desmond Llewellen, later to be "Q" in the first James Bond films, actually is the headless horseman but another actor is supposed to be the horseman later on). One of the best moments is when Hay learns from Marriott of an old rhyme about a smugglers' cave. Hay has to ask the father of Marriott (he looks so old Hay tells him not to worry about Balaclava!) what the last line is, and hears one of the most ridiculous concluding lines of a four line piece of poetry ever spoken.
There are other gems. Looking in old record books for some crime to create a crime wave with Hay reads about one poor soul who stole one sheep and was drawn and quartered two centuries before. Then he reads of a contemporary who threw his shrew of a wife over a cliff and killed her. He got fined four pence.
The fun continues to an end where the chase ends at a car testing track with a truck full of contraband pursued by a bus full of people (don't ask) and then the Chief Constable and his men in patrol cars. Even when the cars stop running the chase is left continuing as the film ends. Somehow it is fitting.