Dandy Dick

Dandy Dick (1935)

Tagline: "Never look a gift horse in the mouth!"

Starring: Will Hay, Nancy Burne, Esmond Kinght, Davy Burnaby, Mignon O'Doherty, Kathleen Harrison, Moore Marriott

Featured Racecourse: Northolt Park

Director: William Beaudine
Producer: Walter C. Mycroft
Writers: Adapted from the play by Sir Arthur Pinero

Release Date: March 1935
Runtime: 70 mins (B&W)

IMDB Synopsis: A church vicar tries to come up with 1,000 pounds to fix the church's crooked steeple. After a variety of schemes fails to raise the required amount of money, he decides to bet what little savings he has on Dandy Dick, a nag running at the local racetrack who's a 10-to-1 shot.

Where to Buy: Amazon
Film Links: IMDB, BFI, Wikipedia

Personal Review


Reverend Richard “Dick” Jedd (Will Hay) is in need of roughly £1000 to repair the spire on his church in St. Marvells and is looking at ways to raise the money. His widowed sister Georgina (Mignon O’Doherty) and friend Sir William Mardon (Dave Burnaby) come to stay with the Vicar along with their jointly owned racehorse Dandy Dick who is due to run in the big race at St. Marvell racecourse. Mardon’s son Tony (Esmond Knight) also flies in to join the party and sets up a love interest with Jedd’s daughter Pamela (Nancy Burne). A church bazaar raises £22 towards the fund (less the £8 that vicar owes for auction items) during which the vicar also ends up stuck on the church spire after accidentally parachuting out of a pleasure flight piloted by Tony.

Tony suggests that the vicar advertises for three benefactors to each donate £250 for the church spire and that the vicar also puts up £250 himself believing that nobody would contribute any money. However, Sir William and two business associates each give Jedd a cheque for £250 leaving the vicar to find a way of raising his £250 share. His sister Georgina suggests putting £25 on her horse Dandy Dick at 10/1 as it can’t be beat and even though the vicar is against betting in principle he soon comes round to the idea. He asks his butler Wilkins to place the bet with a bookmaker on his behalf and though Wilkins thinks that the favourite Bonnie Betsie can’t lose he reluctantly agrees.

The night before the race the vicar takes Dandy Dick some sugar cubes as a treat and accidentally sets fire to the stables but luckily nobody is hurt and Tony rescues the horse. Wilkins tells the vicar that the horse might be unfit after the ordeal and suggests that they make up some medicine for the horse. Wilkins is sent to the chemist to pick up some drugs and steals some Laudanum (opium) in the process which he then secretly adds to the horse feed mixture.

Whilst giving the horse his feed, the vicar is mistaken as an intruder by the local constable and is arrested and taken back to the station. He eventually escapes, with the help of the constable’s wife and makes his way to the racecourse just in time to see Dandy Dick win the big race.
Analysis of the feed proves that Laudanum was in the home remedy and Wilkins admits that he added the mixture to the horse feed to ensure that the favourite Bonnie Bettsie would win but he couldn’t be sure that Dandy ate any of the oats so he didn’t put the vicar's bet on at all. Luckily Wilkins had given the money to Tony who did put the bet on Dandy Dick to win the vicar the £250 needed for the spire.


Dandy Dick was based on a play by Sir Arthur Pinero 1887 which was the year before legendary comedian actor Will Hay was born. This way only Hay’s third feature film and the last with Elstree Studios, despite him already being 47 years old. He had spent most of the 1920s touring theatres with his school master act which was later to be reprised in his next film of 1935 with Gainsborough Pictures, “Boys will be Boys”. We only see small glimpses of Hay’s comical genius in Dandy Dick and this film is not a patch on perhaps his greatest work “Oh Mr Porter” (1937) and the famous Buggleskelly station where the next train has always gone. The main problem for me with Dandy Dick is the weak plot and lack of character development such as the love interest between Pamela and Tony which never really gets off the ground unlike Tony’s plane.

There are some nice touches in the film such as the interactions between Jedd and the deaf Mr Bale and also Georgina’s frequent equine references such as “I’m sound in wind and limb and ready for the nosebag,” but the overall comedy value is very sparse. The quality of the video and audio is very good for a film of this period although there are some weak special effects such as when the vicar parachutes into the spire.

I can’t find any reference to the Dandy Dick racing scenes on the Internet but the advertisements in the parade ring and the shot of the stands at the start of the big race confirm this was definitely filmed at Northolt Park (1929-1940). We only see fleeting glimpses of the track in Dandy Dick and the history of this racecourse is covered in more detail in my review of “Come on George”. The race sequence lacks any sense of excitement or tension and shots from Northolt are interlaced with video from what looks like a point-to-point track complete with the standard speeded up sections.
  
Overall a disappointing film for Will Hay and racing afficionados alike but the seeds for Will Hay’s future fame are certainly there – he was actually the third highest grossing star in the late 1930s behind Formby and Gracie Fields. The horse doping plot has more holes in it than a colander but the quaint scenes of village life in the 1930s as well as some decent shots of Northolt Park make it a worthy watch. (Rating 4/10)

Favourite Quotes
Reverend Jedd: "Mr Creaser, your estimate I see is for 984 pounds and 10 shillings"
Mr Creaser: "Yes roughly a thousand"
Reverend Jedd: "984 pounds and 10 - well that's rather a high figure"
Mr Creaser: " Well it's rather a high steeple"

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