Blue Murder at St. Trinian's

Not the strongest film in the ‘St Trinians' series, but nevertheless enjoyable for fans of mid-50s British comedy. It tends to slapstick at times, particularly the scene where the policemen are looking for the diamond thief – a straight lift from `The Pirate of Penzance'.

The caste is the cream of British comedy at the time. Two mentions: a young George Cole, who went on to make a career of playing Cockney spivs, and Joyce Grenfell as Sgt Ruby Gates. The latter is a standout performance. Joyce Grenfell must surely be on of the finest female comedians of all time and the film is worth watching for her performance alone.

Italian Prince Bruno is looking for a wife. Unscrupulous matchmaker Flash Harry offers him the girls of St Trinian's. Headmistress Amelia Fritton and the teachers are all gone. The girls have gone wild. The government sends in the Army to no avail. Harry has a scheme to get the girls on a trip to Italy.

This is the second St Trinian's movie. It needs more time for the girls. It also needs to highlight a core group of three or four girls. It's supposed to be their movie and it doesn't hurt to show off these beautiful babes. Hopefully, they can act. The movie spends way too much time with all these old men. As for the army, I don't see the government sending in the army for a bunch of girls. I actually like the Keystone Cops better. They are more in line with a slapstick screwball comedy. I wouldn't mind a movie with the St Trinian's girls versus the Keystone Cops. Of course, the cops can't follow them out of the country. They would hand off the troublesome group to their European counterpart. As it stands, it has its moments of fun, but there could be more fun.

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.

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.

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.