Blue Murder at St. Trinian’s (1957) - film review

With headmistress Miss Fritton taking leave at her Majesty’s pleasure, St Trinian’s has descended into a state of total anarchy.  Not even the British army is equipped to maintain order until a replacement head teacher is found.   As his schoolgirl chums battle it out against the hopelessly ill-prepared soldiers, Flash Harry pays a visit to an Italian prince, hoping to sell one of the more attractive sixth formers through his illicit marriage brokering agency.  The prince insists on seeing the goods before he makes his purchase, which presents Harry with a problem: how is he to get the girls to Rome before the end of term?  A UNESCO essay writing competition offering a prize tour of the continent provides the solution.  By their usual skulduggery, the girls win the contest and are about to invade an unsuspecting Europe when another setback comes their way.  The new headmistress, Dame Maud Hackshaw, intends to veto the expedition.  Just before Dame Maud arrives, the school is visited by a jewel thief Joe Mangan, who is looking for somewhere to hide out after his latest heist.  With the police net closing in on him, Mangan is forced to impersonate Dame Maud, who is now safely locked up in the bell tower.  With some barely roadworthy transport supplied by a crooked ex-army captain, Romney Carlton-Ricketts, the girls are soon on their way, unaware that their translator is Ruby Gates, a police sergeant who is determined to unmask the jewel thief.  The atrocities of Attila and his ravaging hordes are nothing compared with the onslaught that Europe faces from the demonic rabble of St Trinian’s...

The second gloriously silly outing for the St Trinian’s mob suffers from an acute deficit of Alastair Sim (who appears in only two short scenes) but this is at least partly compensated for by the addition of Terry-Thomas as a characteristically caddish womaniser.  The victim of Tel’s machinations is a deliciously wimpish Joyce Grenfell who, along with George Cole, provide very welcome reprises of their roles from The Belles of St. Trinian’s (1954).  The one false note is Lionel Jeffries, who is out-performed and out-classed by his co-stars and fails to deliver the comedy goods, even when he is dragged up to the nines.  This is the film that gave us the famous St Trinian’s battle song, an anti-authoritarian rallying cry to adolescent rebellion that was particularly well-suited to the time.

Although somewhat less satisfying and polished than the first St Trinian’s film, this makes a better than average follow-up, even if the humour does descend to the level of an early Mack Sennett comedy, with pantomime policemen charging about the corridors of the school, subjecting themselves to the usual barrage of schoolgirl pranks.  The character humour is much more effective than the boisterous farce and gives the film the backbone it badly needs to avoid looking like Ruby Gates.  From Richard Wattis, the put-upon schools official, to Michael Ripper, the sympathetic lift attendant, there is hardly a character that is not cast and played to perfection.  What makes the film so memorable is not the anarchic antics of the devilish schoolgirls, nor the devious machinations of Flash Harry, but the exquisite, and quite poignant, rapport between Terry-Thomas and Joyce Grenfell, who bring more than a glimmer of emotional realism to their scenes together.

© filmsdefrance.com 2010

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