Bottoms Up

After the war comedy films set in schools were a mainstay of popular cinema going.It all really started with "The Happiest Days Of Your Life" which is undoubtedly top of the class.Then there followed the St Trinians films and then this film.It is a TV spin off from the BBC TV series "Whacko".The TV series was written by Frank Muir and Dennis Norden but they only contributed additional material to this and it shows.\unfortunately it isn't very funny.This despite the loudest attempts by Jimmy Edwards ably assisted by Arthur Howard and Richard Briers and Donald Hewlett.It is very loud but not very funny or original.It is far and away the least funny of the school films.

I never saw the movie until now, 2020, and 60 years hasn't aged it one bit. I remember seeing the TV show but, have never seen the movie.

Thanks to political correctness (the laws of which I've yet to see), movies have had to constrain themselves at times. Stupidity is allowed ala American tripe yet, intelligent, comedic movies are torn to shreds because they speak of, everything.

Thankfully modern comedians, male and female, are speaking about everything, and making everything normal and funny once more, something that has been lacking over the past 20 years or so.

This movie is bloody funny, if one looks closely enough. One will see the boys trying to hide smiles while working against a giant peer of his time. Everything works if one has an open mind. Like everything else, if the mind is closed, it sees nothing.

I loved it.

Sadly neglected, this film proves to be one of the best of British comedies, with a superb script by Muir and Norden,based on their hit TV series "Whacko", that produces endless laughs from fine comic performances from Jimmy Edwards as the rascally headmaster ,from Arthur Howard as the put-upon "Mr Pettigrew" and from the rest of the supporting cast of British character actors and actresses. The battle by the headmaster to wring money out of the finances at Chiselbury School for his own hedonistic ends and at the same time bully,connive and cheat the pupils led by the wily "Wendover" gives rise to some classic comedy situations exploited to the full by the script and rich comic talents of Jimmy Edwards, who was born to play the outrageous headmaster. This film is home-grown British comedy at its best and is better than "The Belles of St.Trinian's" and "The Happiest Days of Your Life", other excellent comedy films based on school-life. Most films made from successful TV comedies have proven to be great disappointments, this film is the exception.

What a great old classic this is! Today's filmmakers and actors could learn so much from viewing such a masterpiece. Not a special effect in site and yet great family fun. Political correctness wasn't invented in 1959 and so Professor Jim drinks and smokes his cigars throughout the film. Bottoms are presented for caning (although Jim never actually canes anything other than a cushion and the deputy headmaster). This film seems to be making a comeback as it appears frequently on ebay. A great pity that the episodes of Whacko! have been lost. If anyone fancies an hour and a half of good, honest fun - they could do worse than obtain this wonderful classic.

One of the most under - rated of 1950s British film comedies, 'Bottoms up', is a spin - off from the TV series 'Whacko', and an early example of the new fast developing genre, television, spawning a 90 minute offering for the cinema, the latter sadly in decline at the time.

'Bottoms up' must have delighted the beleaguered cinema goers of 1959, and is still a delight to watchers on DVD six decades later. The central characters are perfectly cast. 'Professor' Jimmy Edwards (an Oxbridge MA in real life) reprises his role of the blustering, cane - welding headmaster who only succeeds in whacking his Assistant Headmaster, the latter played to hapless, dithering perfection by Arthur Howard. Martita Hunt is the new Chair of Governors who threatens a 'regime change' unless there is a marked turn around in the school's fortunes, another memorable 'battle axe' performance by the screen's best Miss Havisham.

The plot is the hoary old chestnut of a foreign prince enrolling in the school, an idea lifted from 'The Belles of St Trinians', five years earlier (naturally a princess on that occasion). However, its treatment in this film is hilarious, Melvyn Hayes as a fake prince with a marked cockney accent, caped in oodles of brown face paint. Naturally, the real prince turns up!

In truth, the rather wobbly storyline doesn't really matter: a sparkling script (Muir and Norden much in evidence), extremely effective interactions of the characters, and first rate, highly authentic sets all contribute to an eminently watchable film. It's also a fascinating experience for imdb aficionados. Look out for future comedy great Richard Briers, as the new master, and take a good look at the 'leader' of the boys - yes, it really is Mitch Mitchell, legendary drummer for Jimi Hendrix, aged 12, sporting a short back and sides!