The Belles of St. Trinian’s (1954) – 6.0
The Belles of St. Trinian's in 1954 is the first of a series of four films
that take place in an English girl's boarding school. Following this one
was Blue Murder at St. Trinian's in 1957, The Pure Hell of St. Trinian's
in 1960 and The Great St. Trinian's Train Robbery in 1966. Later in 1980
there was an attempt to get the franchise going with The Wildcats of St.
Trinian's - and then in 2007 and 2009 there were two more St. Trinian's films.
Why so popular you might ask. I really have no idea - though clearly more
so in England than in America. The films were based on the cartoons of the
much beloved Ronald Searle who published books of cartoons of the St. Trinian
girls. The school is greatly satirized showing teachers to be uncaring derelicts
and the girl students to be as close to a Mafia gang as possible. All done
in humor as is this film. Very English droll humor mind you.
These films were produced, written and directed by the team of Sidney Gilliat
and Frank Launder who were both heavily involved in the British film industry
from the early 1930s to the late 1950's with loads of credits - one as writers
of The Lady Vanishes, one of my favorite Hitchcock films.
Almost too lunatic and frantic, this has the girls (aged 6-16 or so) in St.
Trinian making booze to sell, betting on horses, playing nasty tricks on
the teachers, inviting men callers over for drinks and the teachers doing
little but smoking and getting drunk in the teacher's lounge. There is a
plot of sorts regarding a stolen racing horse. Alastair Sim has a dual role
as a race horse bookie and as his sister who is the Head Mistress at St.
Trinian's. He is great. If I had not known differently, I would not have
guessed that she was being played by a man in a sort of Margaret Rutherford
ditzy manner. All good fun but a little bit aged.
One of the girls was a very young Shirley Eaton (not that I picked her out)
and another girl who got my attention was Brenda Lee, a striking voluptuous
blonde, who upon further investigation went on to a short career as a blond
bombshell in a number of low budget and foreign films. She was considered
the B Diana Dors (real last name Fluck) who to me was always the B Marilyn
Monroe. Lee was to die in a car accident in 1965.
Blue Murder at
St. Trinian’s (1957) – 6.5
The second in a quartet of films about the St. Trinian's School for Girls.
Its inspiration was a series of cartoons by Ronald Searle that were very
popular. All four films were the products of Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder,
two names I mentioned just recently regarding Night Train to Munich and The
Lady Vanishes. These are nothing like those. They are instead amusing and
absurd depictions of a supposedly posh school full of delinquent girls. But
good girls underneath the larceny. They just indulge in certain activities
that are illegal such as being bookies and making booze.
Their teachers in the first film are monsters and it is open warfare. The
headmistress was played by Alastair Sim in drag. Three years after the first
film - Belles of St. Trinian - comes this second one with nearly an all new
cast. Sim makes a cameo and a couple of the adults return - George Cole as
Flash Harry with his bewildering Cockney accent and Joyce Grenfell with her
huge top teeth as police woman Ruby Gates. Both are well-known comedy players
in England. Add Terry-Thomas and Lionel Jeffreys and you have a full house
of great English comedy actors.
By this film all the teachers have run away and the school has gotten such
a disreputable reputation that they have sent the army in to control it.
Stupid but why not. Good luck as most of the men happily fraternize with
the enemy. In their rooms. An Italian Prince in Rome is looking for a suitable
wife and Flash Harry convinces him that a St. Trinian girl would be perfect.
But how to get them all to Europe. Ah. UNESCO is putting on a contest for
a school to be Ambassadors and travel to Europe. Whoever comes out on top
of a contest. No problem. The girls steal the answers and break into the
Ministry of Education by drilling through a floor and opening a vault to
place their answers inside.
And off they go to Europe much to the consternation of the civil servants
and the entire country. The only man who would take them in his buses is
Terry-Thomas and Lionel Jeffries has stolen some diamonds and the girls need
a head mistress so have him dress up as one. The English do love cross-dressing.
Constantly amusing to me - sly and low key and full of silliness but with
a wit as well. The older girls are needless to say gorgeous and watching
30 little girls in their uniforms chase Jeffries through Rome into the Coliseum
hit my silly spot. The Pure Hell of St. Trinian's came in 1960.
The Pure Hell
of St. Trinian’s (1960) – 5.5
The third in the St. Trinian series of delinquent boarding school girls.
They get a little wackier with each one - spread three years apart. In the
first they were just bookies and booze makers, in the second they went off
to Europe to marry a Prince and in this one they are waylaid to be forced
into an Emir's harem. The older girls of sixteen or so. The younger ones
get stuck back at school till they hijack a plan, then steal a few tanks
and rescue the girls. Like I said wackier and wackier. Just enough to provide
a few laughs. Back from the first two films are Flash Harry (George Cole)
who is a guardian of sorts when he wasn't trying to marry them off in the
second film, Lloyd Lamble as the Superintendent who tries his best not to
marry Sgt Ruby (Joyce Grenfell).
Here the girls burn St. Trinian's down. They then go on trial in masse and
found guilty but the judge puts them under the charge of a Professor (Cecil
Parker) who promises to take care of them. Yup by selling them to the Emir.
Silly stuff happens along the way - Sgt Ruby stows away on a life boat with
enough food to feed an army, then she, Flash and the Professor get set adrift
and end up on a deserted island, then two civil servants parachute down and
join them and then they get to the Emir's fortress where the girls are defending
themselves.
It must sound awful but it has its moments. I like the civil servants breaking
into free form dance whenever they get stressed. The older girls are all
lovely but none of them went on to fame or fortune - at least on the screen.
The main problem with this one is that most of the film focuses on the adults
while the girls are much more entertaining. The film pokes fun at the education
system, the Civil Service, the Military and the judicial system. Pretty much
everyone. Produced and directed by the team of Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat.
The Great St.
Trinian’s Train Robbery (1966) – 5.5
This is the fourth and last film in what is considered the first series of
St. Trinian's films. There were a few attempted re-boots years later but
they didn't really take. These four films are connected by the producer/writer
team of Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat. There are also a few of the adult
actors who appear in a few of the films - though only George Cole as Flash
Harry is in all four. None of the students are in more than one film. St.
Trinian's is of course a boarding school in which parents want to store their
children out of the way. The school has a well-publicized disreputable reputation
for trouble and and that includes the staff. The Education Ministry continually
tries to get them shut down for good but the girls keep bouncing back. This
one was made six years after the last film and was the only one shot in color.
The first hour is actually a bit of a challenge to get through - not much
happens and what does is just silly but not particularly funny. Then in the
final 30-minutes it turns into a smaller version of the Mad, Mad Mad World
in which the students, the teachers, the police and the robbers are all at
different times chasing each other on trains. It was pretty funny. The film
begins with a large gang robbing a train of 2.5 million pounds - quite a
lot of money back then. It is a well-organized heist and the final stop for
the money is in an old abandoned building for a cooling off period. In the
meantime the Labor party has won and the new Education Minister (Raymond
Huntley) has something going on the side with a con woman (Dora Bryan)
who wants to run a school and hire all her nutty larcenous friends. He arranges
that and St. Trinian's is open for business again. But they need a school
and sure enough she buys the building where all the money is hid.
When the crooks realize this (Frankie Howerd being the main one) they have
to figure out how to get the money out with a school full of delinquent girls.
It leads to a merry chase on the trains that goes on and back and forth for
the final third of the film. Pure nonsense and it keeps getting more nonsensical
as it goes. It hit my old style comedy funny spot. Sadly, neither Joyce Grenfell
nor Lloyd Lamble from the previous three films are back.
