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Convict 99

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Convict 99
Directed byMarcel Varnel
Written by
Produced byEdward Black
Starring
CinematographyArthur Crabtree
Edited byR. E. Dearing
Distributed byGainsborough Pictures
Release date
  • 26 September 1938 (1938-09-26)
Running time
91 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Convict 99 is a 1938 British comedy film directed by Marcel Varnel and starring Will Hay, Moore Marriott, Graham Moffatt and Googie Withers.

Plot

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Incompetent Dr Benjamin Twist is dismissed from his job as headmaster at St. Michael's School (the school returns in a later film The Ghost of St. Michael's), and applies for a job in another school.

Going for interview, he is called into another office where they are expecting John Benjamin, a strict prison governor recently arrived from Australia who is applying for the vacancy at Blackdown Prison in Devon. On the way to what Twist believes is the school, he becomes drunk, and on arrival is mistaken for Max Slessor, a prisoner who had escaped during a jailbreak.

Designated Convict 99 and in for seven years for forgery, Twist is soon discovered to be the new Prison Governor, and once put in his (dubiously) rightful place embarks on a programme to make the prison a more friendly place for the prisoners, funding it from the proceeds of a football pools win and stock market investments.

Things take a turn for the worse, when the recaptured Slessor escapes again with a signed cheque. Altering the figures, he draws the entire prison funds from the bank. Twist and some of the convicts head in a prison van to Limehouse, in east London, to catch Slessor, recover the lost funds and then successfully break into the bank in the middle of the night to return the money.

Cast

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