Review for The Belles of St Trinians

The Belles of St Trinians is a simple comedy from 1954 starring Alastair Sim in dual roles as Headmistress Millicent Fritton and her scheming brother Clarence. It is a perfect, classic comedy in the vein of the Ealing studios, with a little bit of Carry-on anarchy for good measure.

With the start of a new term, the St Trinians school is in financial peril. With £4000 of debt and only £400 to their name it seems like the school will close, but most of the surrounding town, including the Police, would see this as a blessing. The reputation of the school, or mainly the girls, is total chaos, with shops boarding up their windows before they are due to arrive. The Ministry of Education have tried to get the school closed, but everytime they send an Inspector he goes 'missing'?

This term sees the arrival of Princess Fatima of Makyad. Her father, the Sultan, owns a number of horses, one of which will be racing in the next big race and is a sure-fire winner. Miss Fritton decides to put every penny the school has on the horse to win. This is not good news for Clarence, who has a lot of money riding on another horse. So with his daughter, and pupil Arabella, they come up with a plan to make sure that the Sultan's horse will not be racing.

I have to be honest when I sat down to watch this I had vivid ghastly flashbacks to the awful Rupert Everett, Russell Brand remake and I had no real hopes for this film. Thankfully, they were all wrong. This is one of the best, simple comedies I have seen in a while. I say 'simple', because there is a genuine charm to this film that made it very easy to watch and enjoy. It almost felt like a test run for the hugely popular Carry On... series that would begin in 1958 with Carry On Sergeant. The comedy is a mix of great sketches with introductions to pupils, classes 'Be careful with that nitroglycerin' and teachers and the genuine humour and jokes delivered by some of the best comedy actors in the business.

The cast of the film is almost a 'Who's Who' of British Comedians: Joyce Grenfell, George Cole, Sid James, Joan Sims, Barbara Windsor (albeit in a blink and you'll miss her role), Shirley Eaton and many more. All are just wonderful and although Sims does steal the film entirely, it would be wrong to not mention how great Joyce Grenfell is in her role as Ruby and George Cole as Flash Harry. Watching this again, I can see what Russell Brand was now trying to do in the remake. He failed spectacularly, but at least now I know what he was trying to do?!

Extras are mainly interviews which is fine. The Girls of St Trinians is a series of interviews with those who played the girls in the film. This is a nice look back at the film and you do get the feeling that making the film was simply wonderful. An interview with Alastair Sim's daughter Meredith McKendrick is a nice look at her father's performance and career.

What is surprising, is how many of the interviews are from a 'critical' point of view. Interview with film historian Geoff Brown is an interesting look at how the film was made and how important the film was. It is a shame that he wasn't asked to do a commentary as he seems like he could have spoken for longer. Interview with Steve Chibnall, Professor of British Cinema at De Montfort University is a wonderful look at the Production of the film and how it was made and again he could have been a great candidate for a commentary. Finally we have an interview with Senior Lecturer in Film Studies UEA Melanie Williams which is again an intelligent look at the film and its impact. And again it is surprising that these three were not asked to provide commentaries and the more I heard from them, the more I wish they had.

It is odd that the films were not all released as a box set with all the sequels, but if you are a fan of classic British comedy then you may enjoy this wonderful film.