My Learned Friend (1943)

Overview

My Learned Friend is Will Hay’s final feature film — and it’s unlike anything else he ever did. While Hay had built his reputation on portraying bumbling authority figures in light-hearted comedies, this 1943 film takes a decidedly darker turn, blending black comedy with thriller elements in a story about assassination, revenge, and public disgrace.

Despite its change in tone, My Learned Friend still retains Hay’s hallmark wit, timing, and satirical edge. It’s a daring film for its time — particularly in the context of wartime Britain — and stands today as a minor classic of Ealing Studios, notable both for its risk-taking and for marking the end of Hay’s remarkable film career.

Plot Summary

Will Hay plays Claude Fishlock, an incompetent, down-at-heel barrister whose career has been marked by mishap and misjudgement. After failing to properly defend a dangerous criminal named Marten (Mervyn Johns), Fishlock finds himself the target of the man’s revenge plot.

Marten, now escaped from prison, intends to murder everyone who contributed to his conviction — including the judge, the prosecutor, and yes, Fishlock himself. What follows is a frantic and frequently absurd race against time, with Fishlock and his hapless associate Fetherstone (Claude Hulbert) trying to prevent the murders and stay alive themselves.

The film builds toward a climactic and visually inventive sequence atop Big Ben, which mixes comedy and suspense with surprising effectiveness.

Performances

Will Hay as Claude Fishlock

Hay is in fine form, though this role departs from his usual schoolmasters or stationmasters. As Fishlock, he's still ineffectual and full of bluster, but there’s a subtle pathos under the humour — this is a man who’s well past his prime and painfully aware of it.

The performance is slightly more nuanced than in some of his earlier films, and Hay plays it with a fitting blend of self-deprecating comedy and barely-concealed panic. It’s a strangely appropriate swan song: a comedy tinged with doom.

Claude Hulbert as Fetherstone

Hulbert is the perfect foil — bumbling, oblivious, and thoroughly lovable. His character offers more of the traditional comic relief, as Fishlock increasingly finds himself wrapped in a life-or-death scenario. The chemistry between Hay and Hulbert is excellent, even though this was their only full-length collaboration.

Mervyn Johns as Marten

Perhaps the most striking performance in the film is from Mervyn Johns (father of Glynis Johns), who plays Marten with chilling understatement. He's not a moustache-twirling villain, but a cold, intelligent man with a plan — which makes the comedy around him all the more audacious. His portrayal adds a genuine sense of threat, elevating the tension.

Direction and Style

Co-directed by Basil Dearden, one of the rising stars of Ealing Studios, and Will Hay himself, the film has a darker, more stylized tone than Hay's previous comedies. The direction is tight, especially in the climactic sequence on the clock tower, which channels suspense in a way reminiscent of Hitchcock’s early thrillers.

There’s clever use of noir-ish lighting and shadow, particularly in scenes involving Marten’s stalking of his targets. This visual style was uncommon in British comedies of the time, giving My Learned Friend a unique place in the cinematic landscape.

Themes and Analysis

Justice and Incompetence

As with many Hay films, the legal system is ripe for satire. Fishlock is a lawyer only in title — bungling cases, misunderstanding basic points of law, and talking circles around himself. Yet the fact that someone as hopeless as Fishlock was allowed to practice raises questions about the nature of British bureaucracy and the danger of privilege over merit.

Death and Comedy

Unlike Hay’s earlier films, death is not just a theoretical or off-screen idea — it’s present and real. Marten is a genuine threat, and people do die in the film. Yet the filmmakers walk a tonal tightrope, managing to extract humour without diminishing the stakes. This dark blend of comedy and morbidity anticipates later works like Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949).

Wartime Britain

Though not overtly propagandistic, the film was made during WWII and contains undercurrents of wartime anxiety. There’s a sense of the old systems crumbling, of people in positions of power being ineffectual, and of a new kind of chaos creeping into society. Even the idea of someone climbing Big Ben with violent intent resonates with fears of sabotage and invasion.

Structure and Pacing

At just over 70 minutes, the film moves briskly. The first act introduces the setup with a light touch, and then the tension gradually ramps up as Marten’s plot begins to unfold. The middle section plays more like a thriller-comedy hybrid, with moments of slapstick interspersed with real suspense.

The final act — particularly the sequence atop Big Ben — is a masterstroke. Combining real location footage, back projection, and clever set design, it delivers one of the most memorable endings in Hay’s filmography.

Legacy and Impact

Though not as widely known as Oh, Mr. Porter! or Ask a Policeman, My Learned Friend has grown in critical esteem over the decades. It is often praised for its genre-bending ambition and its dark wit. For fans of British comedy, it represents a bridge between the innocent silliness of 1930s comedies and the more sophisticated, subversive humour of post war Ealing classics.

It also marks the end of Will Hay’s film career. Due to ill health, Hay would never make another feature film, though he remained active in radio for a time. As a result, My Learned Friend carries a certain poignancy — a final act from one of Britain’s great comic minds.

Final Verdict

My Learned Friend is a bold, unusually dark comedy that stands out in Will Hay’s career and in British wartime cinema as a whole. Blending laughs with suspense, satire with menace, it’s a film that rewards repeated viewings. While it might not have the immediate accessibility of Hay’s earlier comedies, it offers something richer, stranger, and — in some ways — more enduring.

Would you like a comparison between My Learned Friend and other Ealing comedies like Kind Hearts and Coronets? Or a look at how this film influenced the rise of British black comedy in the 1950s?