Death Goes to School

This is the only feature directed by Stephen Clarkson. It's hard to see why, as he does a good job, and co-wrote the script with Maisie Sharman. I'm grateful to Renown and their Talking Pictures TV for the chance to see this rare film.

A teacher at a south of England girls' school is murdered, and since she had a talent for angering her colleagues, there are plenty of suspects. The investigation is led by Inspector Campbell from Scotland Yard. He's a dour Scot with a chip on his shoulder (he'd definitely have voted for independence!) but fortunately he's played by Gordon Jackson, who's always a sympathetic presence. I saw him play a villain in another Renown offering, I think "The Delavine Affair," and he didn't ring true.

One reviewer complained about the cut-glass accents, but given the date and milieu they're to be expected. The Queen still talks like that, and I agree it's irritating, but not as irritating as the inaudibility of so many modern American actors, which makes you wonder why their scriptwriters bothered writing dialogue.

"Death|" is unusual for a British B of the '50s is that there's some humour. When Campbell asks Miss Shepherd what book she's been reading she says "Death in Seven Hours", the book by Ms Sharman on which this film is based. She then needles the inspector by saying that an amateur sleuth solved the mystery. This gives the audience a clue, as later she solves the mystery before him, though to be fair that's because she'd seen something and not told him about it.

All in all, an enjoyable way to spend 64 minutes.

Produced by former director Victor Hanbury, who died the following year shortly after 'fronting' for the blacklisted Joseph Losey on the even more histrionic 'The Sleeping Tiger'. This is also a fascinating artefact from the buttoned-down early fifties (with a conclusion involving assisted suicide that possibly encountered problems with the censor), adapted by Maisie Sharman from her own novel 'Death in Seven Hours' (1952), published under her pseudonym Stratford Davis.

Set in a girls' school in which the repressed passions of both staff & pupils have long ago reached boiling point; murder being the result (an outlet already manifest in the psychotic violence being displayed by the belles of St. Trinian's)!

Despite the flaws in the script and the improbabilities of this film, it comes over as a very good and uncomplicated murder mystery, with the only clue being the heel print of a size 5 shoe in the soil behind where the assailant may have stood behind the victim.

Despite the low budgeted production values, the film still had me guessing right up to the very end, leaving a conclusion that even the detectives were not able to come to.

It was surprising to see Gordon Jackson in one of his earlier films. He was a very fine actor and, at first, I thought that he was probably miscast in this film, but as his character developed you could clearly see why he was chosen for this role.

I am also surprised why the film was never remade, as with the right actors and director, the film could have become one of the great British classics.

A teacher is found dead on the school grounds. Local police investigate, decide it's murder, and call in Scotland Yard in the person of Scottish Gordon Jackson.

It's a classic English mystery, with Jackson interviewing the faculty, finding they all quarreled with the dead woman, and gradually coming to realization of the murderer, but unable to locate a key piece of evidence. Meanwhile, teacher Barbara Murray is thinking hard about the case.

There's very little to expand the movie, co-written by director Stephen Clarkson and Maisie Sharman from a novel by Miss Sharman. There are only three or four shots beyond small sets, and the cheapness shows in lack of characterization. Nonetheless, it's a fair puzzle mystery.

The scene is a girls school where a pupil discovers the strangled body of her teacher. The dead woman had made many enemies at the school during her stay so there is no shortage of suspects. Scotland Yard arrives with Inspector Campbell (Gordon Jackson) in charge of the investigation. Key to the probe is a small ladies footprint found at the scene of the crime, prompting Inspector Campbell to believe the woman was murdered by another staff member.

The print I saw was clear and crisp and the production values nice for a low budget British mystery. The cast was solid but not spectacular in their work. The screenplay is somewhat staid and lacking an energy. The film tells the story from the viewpoint of the Police Inspector and a young schoolteacher who is under investigation. This crossing of views should deliver a interesting journey, yet it remains quite sedate.

I enjoyed this film. It was nice to see Gordon Jackson in a lead role and it was nice to discover a rare, old British mystery. This is not a lost gem, but a nice film for fans of British mysteries, like myself.