Where's That Fire

The Engine That Never Made It!

Where's That Fire? Is directed by Marcel Varnel and jointly written by Marriott Edgar, Val Guest and J.O.C. Orton. It stars Will Hay, Graham Moffatt, Moore Marriott and Charles Hawtrey.

The little town of Bishop's Wallop is home to a fire brigade, three stoic members of the community, Captain Viking (Hay), Jeremiah Harbottle (Marriott) & Albert (Moffatt). Trouble is is that they are completely inept and their record of putting fires out averages out at 1 in 17! Could Captain Viking's new foam formula save their jobs? Is it time that they got up to date and do away with their horse drawn engine? And is that really a film studio wanting to borrow their engine for a movie? The questions will be answered in ...

Essentially just a vehicle for Will Hay ("Capt. Viking"), I found this to be just a bit limited. He is the slovenly leader of a team of hopeless firemen who are given a bit of an ultimatum - either put out a fire or get the bullet. Not the hardest of tasks for a fireman, you would have thought but when their fire engine gets pinched by some would-be Crown Jewel robbers, they must get themselves a new wagon and finally put out a fire! Hay, working again with Moore Marriott ("Harbottle") and Graham Moffatt ("Brown"), have some predictably slapstick escapades that though harmless, I found just a bit too puerile. Hay certainly had a great gift for comedy timing, but here I felt the whole thing just a little too contrived to be very funny for long.