The Black Sheep of Whitehall – 1942 | 80mins | Comedy | B&W

Plot Synopsis

The Black Sheep of Whitehall starred Will Hay as the head of a correspondence college, Hay gets in hot water when he entangles himself with the Nazis who are trying to prevent the signing of an important trade agreement between South American countries and England, not helping matters is one pupil who is refusing to pay his fees. The plot centres on mistaken identities and during its course Hay appears in six different disguises, twice as a woman. When the professor learns that a Nazi agent has breached security and is posing as the economics expert responsible for lining out the international agreement, the good professor tries to find the real expert, who has been kidnapped and hidden.

The film was some way short of his best work though one of Hays best films was soon to follow, with John Mills as a co-star, who earlier had been invalided out of the Royal Engineers where he had been a junior subaltern, was wasted playing a stooge in the part of the pupil, the only memorable part of the film is a fun chase near the end starring Hay and Mills.

Extract© George Perry: Forever Ealing.