Blue Murder at St. Trinian's

By sheer accident I recently saw the worst of this generally well-regarded British series (the 1980 "Wildcats of St. Trinian's"), so I thought to be fair I'd check out the best. Well, this is A LOT better. This is a genuinely hilarious film, not just in the jokes but in the absurd situations. It starts with the notorious title girls' school under military occupation, resulting in heavy casualties (for the military). The older "sixth form" girls decide they want to travel to Rome to meet a wealthy Italian count so they work with the younger "fourth form" hellions to break into the Ministry of Education and rig the results of a UNESCO exam. But when no respectable tour bus company will take this collection of monsters and minxes to the continent, they hire a shady operator (famed British comedian Terry-Thomas). Their "chaperone" meanwhile is the fugitive diamond-thief father of one of the girl's who is disguised as the new headmistress (they "disappear" the real headmistress), which turns the whole thing into a hilarious comedy caper film.

It is a little disconcerting, as other reviewers have noted, that this film mixes the family-friendly scenes of the "fourth-form" ragamuffins with the scenes of the sexualized and sexually-predatory "sixth formers". But let's be honest--the first females most men sexually experienced or fantasized about were probably 16-18 years old, and those who claim to have no lingering attraction to girls that age are either lying or senile. Moreover, the "sixth formers" here are obviously played by somewhat older actresses, who are naturally pretty sexy. The most recognizable actress, for instance, is Italian sex bomb Lisa Gastoni. Now if you're sexually attracted to the "fourth formers", I'd say you have problems, but otherwise. . .

But I digress. These British comedies would get a lot more racy moving into the 70's, but they were rarely as funny as this one. This ranks with the best of the "Carry on" series (i.e. "Carry on Camping", "Carry on Spying") and should be a must-see for any British comedy fan.

Gap-toothed bounder Terry Thomas joins in the fun for this second cinematic outing for the troublesome girls of St. Trinian's. Thomas plays supreme bounder Capt. Romney Carlton-Ricketts, owner of the (clapped out) buses hired by the infamous girl's school to transport its pupils to Rome, where the sexiest of the sixth-formers have a date with wealthy Italian Prince Bruno (Guido Lorraine), as arranged by the marriage bureau run by cheeky spiv Flash Harry (George Cole).

Also along for the trip is Sgt. Ruby Gates (Joyce Grenfell), working undercover to try and catch elusive diamond thief Joe Mangan (Lionel Jeffries), who has disguised himself as Dame Maud Hackshaw, the new headmistress of St. Trinian's (it wouldn't be a British comedy without cross-dressing).

It's a slow start and Thomas doesn't show up until midway, when the girls finally set off for Rome, at which point the film definitely picks up in terms of laughs and uproarious fun. After brief visits to several other countries (the most enjoyable involving the St. Trinian's school band playing a swinging tune at a Mozart festival), the unruly mob arrive in Rome, and the hunt is on for Joe's swag (now hidden inside a water polo ball), the reward for which is £10,000.

With lots of knockabout comedy performed by a great cast (Hammer regular Michael Ripper and Carry On star Terry Scott also make an appearance), plus plenty of sexy sixth-formers in stockings and suspenders (the more shapely students are all of legal age, so don't feel bad for leering), Blue Murder is another very enjoyable, very British St. Trinian's caper.

This is the second installment in the St. Trinians set of films and it deals with the girls wanting to win a contest to go to Europe, specifically Rome, to meet a handsome bachelor prince. They creatively find a way to win the contest and they are on their way. The reason this film is not as immediate as the first is because it takes a while for them to finally make the trip. There is a story attached concerning stolen jewels also, which is germane to all this, but I didn't think it was all that interesting. However, there is better acting in this film. Terry Thomas is good and Joyce Grenfell returns as the sargeant, once again going undercover. So, not as good as "The Belles", but you'll want to see it because you want to see the films in the series.

In the days before political correctness reared its ugly head, boys were boys and girls and girls, and ne'er the twain should meet - except for St. Trinian's where small girls were boys, at least in their behaviour, and large girls were rather pretty, in Sabrina's case voluptuous. The main characters were all well drawn with a splendid supporting cast and all very British. Alastair Sim was perfect as the headmistress, George Cole was the Cockney geezer, Joyce Grenfell the ever spurned policewoman while Eric Barker as Culpepper Brown and Richard Wattis as Bassett were truly superb archetypal education ministers. As for Terry-Thomas - well? Even a coach driver could be posh in those days! Stiff upper lip what, even with St. Trinian's on board. All good clean fun which had family audiences flocking to the local cinema. What a pity they don't show films like this any more on television because they beat the modern rubbish hollow for entertainment value.

With Miss Fritton locked away in the school basement, and the army laying siege to the school grounds (with a great deal of resistance), Flash Harry is abroad promoting the `St Trinians Marriage Bureau' to a wealthy Italian Prince. However he has to visit the Prince with the girls. He manages to cheat in a competition that allows the school to tour to Rome and they're on their way. However one of the girl's Dads is a diamond thief who tries to escape capture by dressing as their headmistress and smuggling himself out of the country, bringing the attention of the law to bear on the already suspect group.

Not one of the best of the series of movies, but still this stands up as a good British caper movie, with a strong cast of British comedians on board. The plot is thin at best and relies on the fact that no-one can tell the difference between sexes after a little bit of cross dressing…..well, I suppose Shakespeare did it all the time and it worked for him! Much of the comedy draws from slapstick or seeing girls fight, but there are some good lines and characters – Michael Ripper's working class liftman is my favourite.

George Cole plays Harry well – in fact he was born playing cockney rogues (eg Cottage to Let), kept playing them (St Trinians ) and got old playing them (Minder on TV). The wonderfully British Joyce Grenfell is good again as Gates, while the support cast is rich in talent – Terry Thomas, Lionel Jefferies, Terry Scott and Alistair Sim. The girls are a little iffy , the young ones are clearly children and play rough little warriors, however the older girls (i.e. 16-18) are played by women of early/mid twenties. They're all dressed up in uniforms with stockings and suspenders showing and using their sexuality for all they can get – not more so than the great Sabrina. However in today's climate where any hint of teenage sexuality or pedophilia sparks a media frenzy, this sits a little uncomfortably – there's certainly no way this could get made today!

Overall it's enjoyable if basic – there are better movies, but it's worth watching once.