School for Sex

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.

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.

My local Blockbuster did not have the film I wanted so I rented this film instead. As I watched this film I thought I was watching a topless version of the Benny Hill show. The Benny Hill show included recurring sketches where Benny played "a dirty old man from Britain" trying to seduce an attractive young ladies. I thought this film had the similiar theme of the Benny Hill sketches except the girls were often topless in this movie. Even though the film was "wild" for the late 60's it may be consider only a comedy farce by today standards. I consider this a good movie when a person wants to watch a no plot comedy with topless ladies. Only warning is that the quality of the movie may be sub standard since this was a low budget film, and the color, tint, and sharpness may have faded.

An early effort from Pete Walker, this one takes the form of a lightweight sex comedy that's a bit like an old Carry On or St. Trinian's movie with added nudity. It involves an unscrupulous businessman who decides to set up a business training young girls in the art of seduction, and all of the hijinks that ensue.

I always find Walker to be a professional director and his writing isn't so bad either. SCHOOL FOR SEX is obviously a low budget production, but it's an acceptable timewaster with it. Derek Aylward is a likeably roguish lead and there's a good eye for detail in the casting, too; Nosher Powell is a perfect fit as the P.E. teacher, and Rosa Alba brings a touch of class to the proceedings as the Countess. There aren't as many familiar faces here as in other British sex comedies from the era, although popular starlet Francoise Pascal makes an early appearance as one of the students.

The humour is either groan-worthy or mildly amusing depending on your tastes for this sort of stuff, but the nude scenes are plentiful and playful, and the actresses undeniably attractive. It's certainly one of the more lightweight and forgettable Pete Walker movies I've seen, but given the amount of poor British sex comedies in existence, it could be worse.