7/10
His tall tales of the sea
26 January 2016
Windbag The Sailor finds Will Hay as a barge captain who loves entertaining the folks at the pub with his tall tales of the sea. On the other side of the pond Hay would be the equivalent of Gabby Hayes telling those tall tales of the west in all those cowboy pictures.

But he works his charm on Evelyn Varden who sponsors a troop of Sea Scouts one of them Graham Moffatt who along with Moore Marriott was making his first appearance as a second banana to Will Hay.

Hay gets to be captain of a freighter that's a sea going disaster, but he does not know that this canal barge captain is supposed to be the dupe and go down with the ship that his crew is planning to scuttle for the insurance. Of course Hay knows nothing about running an ocean going vessel and that's half the comedy in Windbag The Sailor.

The other half involves Hay and Moffatt and Marriott being rescued by cannibals off Africa and their lives being saved by the portable battery operated radio that Moffatt won't leave the ship without. Funniest part of the movie is our three heroes sailing away from the ship with Hay doing his best Charles Laughton cast adrift from the Bounty.

A special providence seems to save this trio in all their films as they sure don't get by on their own abilities. Windbag The Sailor is a very funny film, holding up well for a movie now 80 years old.
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