The Pure Hell of St. Trinian's

I first saw this at the original Odeon Marble Arch nearly 60 years ago.Whilst likeable this film is not a patch on the original.It starts well with the trial scene.After that it seems to loose inspiration quickly.Maybe the lack of Alistair Son and the fact that hardly any scenes at the school feature in the film.Furthermore Irene Handels role as the headmistress ends far too early.

The Pure Hell Of St Trinian's (1960) -

Although it was missing Alistair Sim and Richard Wattis (Butters just wasn't the same), I actually think that this one was stronger than the previous two, but once again there's just not enough of the school girls involved or perhaps it was a lack of the younger more "crazy" girls that was really missing. They were the chaotic element that provided the best puns after all.

It's a bit repetitive for poor old Ruby too and she deserved so much better than the rogues she got caught up with and definitely didn't need that useless police officer fiancée.

The concept was very clever and although I still enjoyed it, I would have liked to have seen more jokes and perhaps, as with the last film, another 15-20 minutes to help the pace and give room for extra pranks and plots.

There were some great actors involved and they all do well with the script. I might have come up with an alternative to the "Dance" idea, but actually it did grow on me.

For a film as old as it is, it did still have a magic and, for the most part, it could be made today with very few changes.

545.66/1000.

This is the final of the three original St. Trinian's films. Alastair Sim doesn't appear in this one, which leaves quite a space but is filled well by new characters and extensions of existing ones. The plot is a lot different from the 2 before, in that it's more surreal. In the other 2, the fact that Flash Harry, a police woman and a professor would become stranded on a desert island wouldn't have happened. Neither would the storming of an Arab sheiks palace. The charceters of Sergeant Ruby Gates (Joyce Grenfell) and Flash Harry (George Cole) are explored much more, with us learning things like Harry's middle name and where Ruby's mother lives. Fantastic performances form the whole cast but I think Cole and Grenfell steal the show. Comedy at its best. Watch out for the scene in the strippers club. Watch Harry's face. Probably the best comedy without words ever.

Third time the charm? Well, not really. This installment in the original and classic St. Trinian's films doesn't actually take place at St. Trinian's at all! The school is a pile of embers at the top of the first reel! Gone, too, is Alistair Sim (everyone's favorite Scrooge) in the drag double role as headmistress and her brother. The up side is this allows more shenanigans from the likes of Joyce Grenfell (a personal favorite) and the supporting cast. But with school girls of St. Trins only set decoration, it's just not the same. There's a remake of the original that's also spawned two sequels (Rupert Everett subs for Sim) but these are inferior goods - stick to the glorious black and white originals!

When the school is burnt to the ground, all the girls find themselves in the dock. However the judge decides mercy and takes up the offer of one Professor Canford to open a new school with a backer and try to change the girls. The backer, Alphonse O'Reilly, takes the whole school on a trip to Europe, but Flash Harry finds that the ship is actually on it's way to Africa, where Alphonse plans to sell the older girls into harems!

This entry in the series starts really well. Not only does it have what I consider to be a great line (`there's always trouble when there's arson around') but the courtroom stuff is very funny. The rest of the film from there starts to tail off, the continuation of the film sees the old characters come back in (mostly) are this is good. However once the action moves to Africa etc it all becomes a little silly but doesn't manage to be fun for it.

The action gets more frantic and less amusing as it goes along and, by the end of the whole thing, I'd pretty much lost interest in it. The cast are reasonably good. The girls are in two camps – the young thugs and the sexy `girls' (albeit it they are happily in their 20's). The support cast includes good performances from George Cole (complete with cheeky chappy music in case you didn't get it). Parker and Grenfell are OK but their stuff on the island doesn't really wash. Barker and Walters are fine, as is a cameo from Le Mesurier, but Sid James is pretty wasted.

Overall this is worth seeing if you like the series (although it fades throughout the 90 minutes), but there are better films in the series if you're just coming in now.