St. Trinians - The Pure Hell Of St. Trinians [DVD] [1960]

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During his BBC interview [8] Searle agreed that the cruelty depicted at St Trinian's derived partly from his captivity during World War II but stressed that he included it only because the ignoble aspect to warfare in general had become more widely known. According to Mark Simpson in his book Alastair Sim: The Real Belle of St. Trinian's, Alastair Sim was originally offered only the part of Miss Fritton's brother Clarence. But when Launder and Gilliat were unable to find an actress to play the role of the headmistress, he suggested he could play both roles. Quinlan, David (1984). British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959. London: B.T. Batsford Ltd. p.282. ISBN 0-7134-1874-5. All becomes clear when Sir Horace pays a personal visit to his lover, Amber Spottiswood (Dora Bryan), who just happens to be the headmistress of St. Trinian's. With her new windfall, Amber is able to get the school up and running again in new premises. She also sets about rounding up "the best of the mistresses"from her staff.

St Trinian's is depicted as an unorthodox girls' school where the younger girls wreak havoc and the older girls express their femininity overtly, turning their shapeless schoolgirl dress into something sexy and risqué by the standards of the times. St Trinian's is often invoked in discussions about groups of schoolgirls running amok. [ citation needed] Sim succeeds admirably in making Miss Fritton a plausible character, albeit a comic one, without resorting to cheap laughs or mugging as a man in a dress. Being much too good an actor to descend to the level of a simple drag act, he is careful to allow Miss Fritton her dignity as a character in her own right. Inevitably, the sight of an actor as obviously masculine and as lugubrious as Alastair Sim playing a woman means that the part has a slight element of the grotesque about it, but Sim himself never plays to that. There's not much point in looking too deeply for political messages in the St. Trinian's films, but the minister's decision to turn all the London schools into one giant comprehensive (i.e. non-selective state school) does sound ominous. It's not entirely clear if the characterisation of the new Schools Minister as corrupt is anti-Labour or simply anti-politicians. It's probably the latter, especially as Launder and Gilliat were originally considered to be quite left wing and were even considering making a Karl Marx biopic at one point. Perhaps that changed, because the next film in this series, The Wildcats of St. Trinian's, would definitely show an anti-trade union stance, and therefore a touch of Thatcherism.Malcolm Arnold: The Belles of St. Trinians – Comedy Suite: Orchestra". Music Room . Retrieved 10 October 2021. Harry is a cheap spiv with a pencil moustache, who is usually seen wearing a trench coat and trilby hat. The shoulders on the coat are so wide that he almost looks as if he's left the coat hanger inside it, while the hat is invariably pulled down over his eyes to disguise his face, making it comically obvious that he's up to no good. Harry seems to be permanently skulking somewhere in the school grounds and can usually be summoned with a strong whistle. When he finds out that a policewoman has been sent to the school undercover he is indignant: "It's a blooming nerve! Ain't been no murders 'ere. Not so far."

The Happiest Days of Your Life was headlined by the formidable pairing of Alastair Sim and Margaret Rutherford, as the head teachers of the two respective schools. Without the presence of the indomitable Rutherford, The Belles of St. Trinian's finds perhaps the only other comedy star who could compete with Alastair Sim on screen - another Alastair Sim. One development is that many of the St. Trinian's sixth form girls are now played by actresses of the right sort of age. This may be why the film is much more chaste in its depiction of the older girls than in the last couple of films. It's a bit repetitive for poor old Ruby too and she deserved so much better than the rogues she got caught up with and definitely didn't need that useless police officer fiancée. The Belles of St. Trinian's borrows several of the stars and supporting players from The Happiest Days of Your Life, including Alastair Sim, Joyce Grenfell, Richard Wattis, George Cole and Guy Middleton. While the St. Trinian's film is broader and not as well plotted as The Happiest Days of Your Life, it does benefit greatly from recycling that film's cast of character actors. St. Trinian's is partly a parody and a subversion of the "school stories" genre of the 1950s, popularised by Enid Blyton. But it's also in part a satire of progressive, pupil-centred educational methods, as well as of the supposed value of a private education. New private schools would occasionally spring up in Britain, with the aim of rejecting a traditional curriculum and allowing pupils to follow their own inclinations and interests instead.It's a quaint British comedy and I'm feeling a trifle warm just thinking about. I should have taken the tablets.