So much average

Powerful

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

"The Belles of St. Trinian's" is a British comedy similar to other films about schools run amok. It has a different twist however. Here the disorder and havoc are fomented by an unorthodox "faculty" as much as by a generally unruly student body. Indeed, the film leads one to wonder how many of the faculty have their faculties.The humor in this setup soon wears thin, and the screaming hordes after a while become grating. What saves the film, or makes it in the first place are the performances of three of the cast. Alastair Sim is very funny in his double role, especially as St. Trinian's head mistress. He/she is Millicent Fritton, sister of Clarence, also played by Sim.Two excellent performances are given by George Cole as Flash Harry and Joyce Grenfell as a police sergeant, Ruby Gates. She goes undercover to check on illegal activities suspected of going on through the school. The film is worth seeing for these three performances that generate most of the laughs.Here's a funny exchange between Millicent and Flash Harry. Millicent, "She says there is an illicit still on the premises." Harry, "It ain't a still. It's a homemade gadget for makin' bath tub gin." Millicent, "There is a man her called Flash Harry …" Harry, "Yeah. But she's no right to call me that in official documents." Millicent, "… who acts as a contact man." Harry, "Oh, that's a lie. I'm a go-between."

I have always loved this film, it is a comedy classic I think. There may be those who find the humour more cosy than chaotic, but I cannot deny the humour is wonderful and never ceases to make me laugh. With a great script, cast and sight gags this is a wonderful film that never fails to cheer me up when I'm not happy.The Belles of St. Trinians is very nicely filmed, the cinematography is lovely and the scenery, buildings and costumes are great to look at. The music is also a nice touch, while the story while admittedly thin to some is engaging and suitably anarchic. The sight gags are inspired and hilarious, the script is deft and funny and the direction is playful. The acting is also really good, Alastair Sim is on sparkling form as Mrs Fritton and George Cole is excellent as Flash Harry. Joyce Grenfall though is the one who comes very close to stealing the show, who is delightfully dippy as Sergeant Gates.Overall, a great film and just great fun. 10/10 Bethany Cox

Choose your fate: The terrible tykes of the fourth form, playing practical jokes that involve axes, or the...ummm...well-developed girls of the sixth form, who discovered some time ago cigarettes, gin, sex and how easily men can be led astray. The problem is that one set comes with the other. They are all there at St. Trinian's, that remarkably easy-going English school for girls led by headmistress Millicent Fritton (Alastair Sim). As Miss Fritton is fond of pointing out, "In other schools girls are sent out quite unprepared into a merciless world, but when our girls leave here, it is the merciless world which has to be prepared." Miss Fritton sounds something like a melding of Julia Child and Eleanor Roosevelt, and definitely has Sim's droll and deadpan comic genes. In The Belles of St. Trinian's, a sly, chaotic comedy from the team of Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat, St. Trinian's is, as usual, on the brink of financial disaster. Salvation may be at hand, however, when a rich sheik sends his daughter to join the fourth form and receive a proper English education. The sheik also is a horse owner and one of his prize racers, Arab Boy, is being trained near the school for a race. It's only a matter of time before the fourth- form girls form a racing pool and bet heavily on Arab Boy, with Miss Fritton adding to the pool what funds the school has left. (Much of the fourth-form girl's money comes from the gin they make in chemistry, then bottle and lower by rope to Flash Harry (George Cole), a Cockney fixer, for distribution. "It's got something...I don't know quite what," says Miss Fritton on sampling the stuff, "but send a few bottles up to my room.") Miss Fritton, however, has a brother, Clarence Fritton (who, by some coincidence of casting, also is Alastair Sim), a bookmaker who not only has placed a bundle on another horse, but who also has a daughter. And he has placed the precocious Arabella in the sixth form to keep him informed. Soon the sixth form has kidnapped Arab Boy, the fourth form has taken the horse back, Flash Harry has joined forces with Miss Fritton, the sixth-form girls are determined that Arab Boy will not leave the second floor of St. Trinian's, Clarence and his Homburg-wearing gang have arrived, parents are driving up for Parent's Day and the Ministry of Education has arrived in the person of a very proper inspector. Total war breaks out at St. Trinian's. It's hard to say which is more dangerous, the African spears or the flour bombs. Alastair Sim as Millicent Fritton turns in a tour de force performance. Miss Fritton is a tall woman with a stately bosom, fond of long gowns with embroidered lace and Edwardian hats with lots of feathers. She takes everything in stride, even a fourth-former pounding at something in chemistry class and, after hearing an explosion a few minutes later, the results. "Oh dear. I told Bessie to be careful with that nitro-glycerine!" She is firm in believing that St. Trinian's is "a gay arcadia of happy girls." Sim was one of Britain's great eccentric actors. Other than the sheer chaos of all the little (and not so little) girls doing terrible things, he delivers much of the film's pleasure.

I first saw this film in the late fifties or early sixties on tv. If I recall correctly there were a few other films in the story of the St. Trinian's Belles. I don't remember the others quite well, but the first one is without question one of the funniest films out of Britain I have ever seen. For that matter, out of anywhere. The sight gags are fast and furious, the dialogue is to die for and almost all the characters are brilliantly drawn and just plain funny. Everyone seems to be enjoying themselves immensely. I highly recommend this movie to anyone who appreciates good old fashioned comedy (not rated R) and I think even children will love it. This is one of those movies (and its sequels) that I would pay almost anything to own. Enjoy it if you ever get a chance to see it.