The Belles of St. Trinian's (1954)

The Belles Of St. Trinian's are raising all kinds of mayhem once again with headmistress Alastair Sim in drag oblivious to all. It seems as though headmistress Sim and her brother the bookmaker are at odds over what to do about a racehorse.Sim the bookmaker gets his daughter who was kicked out in the previous St. Trinian's film reinstated to buddy it up with a new girl whose father is an Arab sheik. The sheik played by Eric Pohlman has a racing stable with a new 3 year old that's greased lightning on the track. Naturally inside information about the horse is of big concern to the bookmaker. As the story unfolds brother and sister are at odds over what to do with information and then with the horse itself when it's kidnapped by the St. Trinian's girls foiling a kidnapping plot engineered by the bookmaker's friends.As in the first St. Trinian's film this is an Alastair Sim show. Alec Guinness has nothing on Sim in playing a part in drag. I liked Sim in drag as the absolutely clueless headmistress who is oblivious to all around her. English Music Hall entertainer Sid James is always a treat as one of bookmaker Sims enforcers.Of course there is a horse race at the climax of the film, You could do worse than see this very funny British comedy and find out what happens.

Alastair Sim in a double role lights up this production that otherwise I did not find too much fun to watch. There are a few amusing moments during the film, but I generally found it to be rather overdone and too absurd to be funny. Many of these old British comedies still have charm and the power to make me laugh, but I would not place this film in that category. The characters actually felt rather stale, and I found it all rather annoying. I do realise that I'm in the minority here, so maybe it's just me. I suppose if one is into zaniness this might be good to watch, and Alastair Sim fans should see it for him playing two roles rather well, but otherwise I just personally cannot recommended it.

There are other movies about boarding schools and the antics of the students and staff, but "The Belles of St. Trinian's" towers above them all! The plot has been thoroughly summarized by other posters, so I won't cover the same ground. I just want to say that it's a shame that it's FINALLY out on DVD, but in a format that can't be used in the U.S.! :-( Enjoy, fellow fans in New Zealand and Australia! And if anyone reading this has any pull in such matters, PLEASE help get it released on DVD with Region 1 encoding! Also, is it possible to be notified via e-mail when (I won't say "if") it is released on DVD in the United States? Thanks!

The St Trinian's film series, in which a rowdy crowd of girls, their drunken and appalling teachers, and their 'refined' headmistress (played by a man, natch), remain high in any league table of Britain's comedy moments.In a cast headed by the superb Alistair Sim (Miss Fritton, the headmistress; and her brother, race shark Clarence) we also find Joyce Grenfell as a policewoman joining the staff undercover (and no one was better than Grenfell at this jolly hockey kind of stuff), Beryl Reid as a mannish, drunken chemistry teacher, Hermoine Baddeley and Irene Handl as memorably unsuitable members of staff, George Cole as 'flash' Harry, an odd-job man who deals with the export of the St Trinian's bathtub gin and places racing bets for the girls, and the incomparable Richard Wattis as a harassed Ministry of Education inspector. The girls themselves include some memorable turns - Vivienne Martin as chain-smoking Bella, Belinda Lee as horny Amanda, also Barbara Windsor and Carol White are somewhere in there. The plot revolves around a race horse, Arab Boy, who ends up in the fourth-former's dormitory; a side plot involves missing Ministers of Education, who have become part of the staff as 'the Lotus Eaters'. Probably the funniest of the series, this film is fast-paced, furious, with some violent 'old girls', some wonderful set-pieces, and a nice script from Launder and Gilliat.