School for Sex: Rund ums Bett

Dastardly Giles Wingate (Derek Aylward) sets up a finishing school for girls at his large English country manor, teaching delinquent sexy young girls how to financially extort rich men. I am a fan of the horror movies of British cult director Pete Walker so when 88 Films released a box set of his sex movies on a whim I bought a copy. I decided to start with School For Sex, oh dear, I was not impressed. This movie now looks and sounds very dated with words such as "bird", "wench" and "crumpet" used to describe women, and there is no sexual equality here - women are seen stark naked but the men are always at least partially clothed. Early on there is a flashback scene to when Giles was 21 but Aylwood would have been 46 at the time! This is meant to be a comedy but I didn't find it very funny. Don't bother watching the prudish British release, instead go for the Continental version which has far more nudity. Apart from seeing a few nice "birds" I did enjoy looking at the old motor vehicles, most of which would have been built in Britain before the death of the UK motor industry.

1st watched 10/21/2022 - (Dir-Pete Walker): *not original Mono* Early British sex-ploitation is barely watcheable for the full 80 minutes not because it isn't titillating - but because it gets boring. It's the story of a well-to-do man who keeps skirting the law despite his guilt as he only gets a suspension for money laundering. He than decides to start a supposed sex-ed school disguised as a finishing school for girls to get money back from wrongs against him by his many wives. It's portrayed as more of a way to tease older rich men with some physical therapy done in underwear, primarily for the audience. The first group bring great results somehow, but it finally catches up to them as the police are keeping their eye on things. It's amazing how this movie got an "X" rating from the British censors when it was released, but would definetly only get an "R" rating, at least in America today. The writer/director & producer was supposedly trying to make money off the lightening of restrictions in British cinema, but it definetly doesn't stand up in today's world. A very silly premise with a lot of teasing, but not enough to keep our modern folks interested, and the bottom-line it's also very poor filmmaking with some scenes that don't even make any sense. This is kind of like a slightly more raunchy extended Benny Hill episode, but not as funny.

I had decided to watch this on the basis that Nosher Powell was in this, the only other movie I have seen with him was Eat The Rich. He seemed to be mainly cast as a background heavy in things like The Sweeney, but as his name was prominent on the title it was obvious he had a larger part to play.

I am also interested in older UK movies, these sex based comedies seemed to be a big thing in the 70s and watching this it was hard to tell if it was 60s or 70s, however it was made in 69. No pun intended.

For me there wasnt a single person in this movie I recognised which suggested a low budget.

The story is about some rich gentry who is in court for running a brothel after being fleeced by a line of women leaving him broke, so he turns to immoral earnings. The bulk of the story being a flashback. Very little happens however. Its basically a set of scenes were women find a reason to strip under the guise of them being trained to seduce rich men.

What is striking is how the bodies of women have changed since the 60s. The women here have never set foot in a multi gym so their bodies are much more natural looking.

Overall the tone of this is a bit Benny Hill but without the silent treatment or the obvious humour. There is no sex on show however there is full on nudity in some scenes, that will be why its a X rating then.

Like most exploitation movies the poster promises more than it delivers, its just not engaging or entertaining.

As for Nosher, yes he has a prominent speaking role and looks very young in this. Despite being a bit part actor in the main he is probably the biggest name in this.

Hard to recommend expect for the curious....

I wasn't really sure what to expect going into this one; my experience of Peter Walker extends only to his horror movies, some of which are excellent (House of Whipcord) while others are terrible (Die Screaming Marianne). School for Sex is an early Walker film (actually, his first according to IMDb) and it's his attempt at a sex comedy. The film doesn't exactly have a great reputation among the few who have seen it, and that's not really surprising - but all the same, I actually rather liked this silly little film. Naturally, everything in it is rather tame these days, and compared to other films like this from the late sixties - not all that lurid for the time it was released in. The film was obviously intended to be more of a comedy than a sex film, and doesn't go much further than showing it's female cast topless. The plot focuses on a man convicted for fraud. He decides to start up his own 'school for sex' with the help of a local Duchess. There he teaches girls how to seduce men and get them to part with their cash...

The plot was clearly not the main thing on Peter Walker's mind. The film is only short, running about seventy five minutes and the story neither goes anywhere nor has any real point. Obviously the main aim of the film was to show a bit of skin and make his audience laugh, and Walker just about achieved both of those aims. The comedy isn't really very funny, but it's all very light-hearted and the film has a sort of British charm to it which is nice. I can certainly see why the film doesn't have a great deal of fans; aside from the reasons mentioned, this is never going to be a film that will appeal to everyone; porn fans are likely to be disappointed at the lack of sex and nudity, while non-porn fans probably wont enjoy it much either. The central idea certainly could have lead to a much better movie too; I have to admit that I enjoy movies about people being conned anyway, and showing young girls doing it to 'men who should know better' could have been much more fun. On the whole, this is not exactly Peter Walker's best work, but for what is I enjoyed it, although I wouldn't recommend anyone going to great lengths to track it down!

A huge financial success in 1969. Like most postwar British films of the forties & fifties the action of this film takes place in a big country house; but despite the title the budget for 'School for School' didn't stretch to similarly spacious interiors, so the lessons indoors are decidedly confined. (Writer-director Peter Walker makes matters even worse by seeming to have learned how to stage his actors by exclusively studying films made prior to 1914; even down to the comic bobby prowling about the undergrowth.)

The patrician hero, Derek Aylward, is required by the script to occasionally lapse into using uncouth expressions like "birds", "crumpet" and "lovely lolly"; while the one authentically foxy female in it is 'Deputy Headmistress' 50 year-old Rose Alba as drunken procuress The Duchess of Burwash, never seen without a double brandy in her hand.

Like most of Walker's films it's very cynical about what makes people tick; the men being generally gormless & easily manipulated and the women mercenary.