User Reviews

The Second World War may be over sixty years old, but it still is quite alive as one of the most photographed and recorded conflicts of all time. The pictures caught by newsreels of the Blitz in London are among the most powerful images of that conflict - and may have done more to solidify American public opinion against the Axis than anything else before Pearl Harbor.

But to the British it was not something to horrify an audience that would then turn around and go home to safe beds blessing the two large oceans that seemed to protect them. English, Welsh, Scots, and Irish were within bombing distance of German planes, and subject to months, even years, of attack. So this was a life-and-death matter.

GO TO BLAZES is a brief comic short starring Will Hays, a name not too well known (unfortunately) in the U.S. But from 1933 or so up to the war he made a series of comedies with Graham Moffatt and Moore Marriott that critics have compared to the Marx Brothers - films like ASK A POLICEMAN or OH MR.PORTER!. Hays is similar to Groucho in that he is always in a minor leadership post (schoolmaster or cop) which he bungles or uses for his own advantage, hampered by his even dumber two associates (Moffatt is the fat young man, and Marriott is the elderly nincompoop). Somehow they (like Groucho, Harpo, Chico, and Zeppo) bungle their way to triumph in the end.

In GO TO BLAZES, Hays is married to Muriel George, and they live with their grown up daughter Thora Hird. Hays is not too happy that George is not there to give him a hot dinner, but he's told it is in the stove. While his daughter is studying math, he tells her he has been asked to give a lecture on putting out fires from Nazi incendiary bombs. He is certain he's up to it, as he has read the pamphlet on the subject. We see him practicing before a mirror, and as he gives his speech we see the reality behind his expertise. He is dumb enough to try to carry his fire fighting equipment while still holding onto a pan of bacon he was cooking for his dinner. He keeps lucking out actually - he's so incompetent he can't stop one bomb going from the roof to the basement, accidentally landing into a bucket of water (he claims he strategically placed it there.

Ms George returns and she too is surprised that he is going to give this talk. Then they realize an incendiary has hit the house again, but while Hay acts with typical bumbling Ms George and Ms Hird act promptly and manage to control the fire quickly. At the end Ms George insists Hay take lessons on incendiary controls that the government is giving. He hesitates, until he learns where the classes are near.

Less than ten minutes long it is an amusing comedy. Until now it is the only complete film of Hays I have been fortunate to see (on You Tube, as I said above). I strongly recommend it as a way to see what this fine comedian was like. Also as a reminder of what the British public had to put up with from 1940 - 1945 in wartime.