The Pure Hell of St. Trinian's

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.

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.

I just watched this on TV, and it was great to see so many well known actors looking young ! This film is very interesting as a part of our British cultural heritage, and a window on a time when Pythonesque humour was developing.

The idea of a British schoolgirl being a stripper in a club called "Mohammed's" in "Arabia" may seem awfully non-PC today, but the other characters are also caricatures of British types.

I particularly enjoyed the British Officer in the "Bath" unit and his preoccupation with Scotch. But as another reviewer has said, George Cole is outstanding.

Great fun.

This film begins with the school burning down and there is a trial for arson against the girls (all of them!). They are found guilty but set free by the judge. The girls are taken on a ship, supposedly going to the Greek Isles. The ever lovelorn Sargeant Gates (the wonderful Joyce Grenfell) goes to meet up with them to see whats going on. She ends up on a desert island with Flash Harry (George Cole) and another man who has designs on her. Will they save the girls? Do they need saving? This film is not as good as the other two, since it deemphasizes the girls. Its a lot more of an adult film, they are much more prominent. Its not bad, just not quite as good. As for whether Sargeant Gates gets married..see the film. Its fine, just not essential unless you want to watch the series (all 4 films are available in a box set but unfortunately with no extras). So, check it out if you want to.

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.