A Farmer's Life for Thee
When the owner of a farm suddenly dies, having stumbled across an old land mine in one of his fields, it is discovered that he hadn't made a will. That means his distant relatives from London are entitled to the farm rather than Annie (Kathleen Harrison - Double Confession) who had cared for the old farmer for over 25 years. The thing is that when Alfie Brewer (Leslie Dwyer - The Black Rider) and his family show up, Alfie is the only one who wants to keep the farm whilst the others, such as his brother-in-law Fred (George Cole - Our Girl Friday), can't wait to sell it.
"Where There's a Will" is one of those British comedies which starts strong, well a farmer being blown up by a landmine certainly is attention grabbing and slightly comical in its matter of fact way. But whilst the humour through out is certainly smile worthy it ends up one of those old British comedies which keeps delivering the same sort of humour rather than coming up with something new. As such it starts with both George Cole and Leslie Dwyer as Fred and Alfie giving plenty of Cockney spiv and you get that through out with that air of ducking and diving running through all their scenes. It is the same with the sight gags from trudging through mud to sleeping on lumpy mattresses as it is all on one level.
Now in fairness "Where There's a Will" has some comedic twists and turns from loans being bought by someone who wants the farm to Alfie buying out another relative on the QT. But because so much focus is placed on the actors playing their usual sort of characters it ends up struggling to really hold your attention. On top of that the whole inheritance with no will thing has been done many times before and so it isn't really much of a spoiler to say a will shows up.
What this all boils down to is that "Where There's a Will" is a fun comedy, a bygone piece of British entertainment. But it is the sort of British comedy which relies so heavily on the actors with the gift of the gab that after a while it becomes a bit too repetitive.
