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Funny Movie
"The Belles of St. Trinians" is a movie that is worth your while to dig up and watch. It's been about 50 years since it was made, and it's still funny. The humor (one should know) comes from gags about alcoholic beverages, gambling, dishonesty, and well, more dishonesty ... all involving a private girls school in England. <
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>The girls are sharp operators ... clever little imps with an infectious enthusiasum for playing pranks. Even the head mistress of the school is fair game. <
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>This lady, Millicent Fritton, is played by the very excellent (and very male) British actor Alastair Sim. He does double duty by also playing "Millie's" evil brother Clarence. He (Alistair Sim) does a great job playing Millie ... carrying it off with quite a flair ... as "she" outwits not only her brother, the ministry of education, the police, and the school's instructors, but even the girls themselves. <
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>The gist of the story is this: The girls have bet all their money on a horse (a sure winner) in an upcoming race. Millie gets wind of "the investment" and, in an attempt to save the school from foreclosure, bets all of the school funds on the same horse. Clarence (Millie's brother) has a substantial sum of money bet on a different horse, and, to ensure its winning, decides to kidnap (horse-nap?) the girls' horse ... forcing the girls to spring into action ... to avert the potential disaster. <
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>The little actresses who play the girls are ... wonderful. They inject the most fun into the movie. George Cole performed with Alistair Sim in "A Christmas Carol" four years earlier. He was a little green in that movie, but here, as "Flash Harry", he is ... perfect ... a joy everytime he's in a scene. In fact, there are good comedic performances turned in by the entire cast. Hermione Baddeley is here, but she is almost unrecognizable as Miss Drownder the school's English grammar instructor. <
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>There are some memorable lines: <
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>Millicent: (To the incoming students) You see, in other schools, girls are sent out quite unprepared into a merciless world ... but ... when our girls leave here, it is the merciless world which has to be prepared. <
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>Millicent: (Sampling a chemistry class, um, experiment) It's got something ... I don't know quite what ... but send a few bottles up to my room. <
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>Harry: She's right ... we don't want our good name dragged through the mud. <
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>Millie: The old girls!! And all in primed condition. <
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>The Sultan: ... to begin by presenting this cup for good conduct, which I understand has not been presented since 1927. <
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>But this movie is an enjoyable farce ... and a romp for us viewers ... where the comedy comes at us without much of a lull ... just a fun movie to watch ... but one that might perhaps require a little explaining to children who join in to view it. <
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Wild schoolgirl hijinks
"The Belles of St. Trinians" is an old-fashioned wacky school comedy, full of wild kids and clueless adults.  Set in an English private school, the girls of St. Trinians might just have been the first to establish this familiar film genre.

The girls are VERY wild, sometimes shockingly so, brewing up gin in chemistry class and then selling it through a local bootlegger, Flash Harry, or winning field hockey games by putting the opposing team and the referee in the hospital by whacking them with their hockey sticks.   In light of current "PC" times, kids in films just aren't this wild anymore.  Plenty of the humor just comes from seeing these kids in action.

Alistair Sim does good service in his double role as the corrupt Clarence and his twin sister, the optimistic yet still slightly corrupt Mrs. Fritton.  The other adults in this film range from clueless to incompetent, such as the Board of Education inspectors who like the school so much they just never seem to leave.

"The Belles of St. Trinians" is a bit dated, but that is part of its fun as well.

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An innovative British comedy
Alastair Sim reprises, after a fashion, his barmy schoolmaster role from the 1950 film, "The Happiest Days Of Your Life," only this time he's playing Margaret Rutheford's character, performing in drag as Miss Fritton, a dotty headmistress whose belief in a liberal, unstructured education has led to complete lawlessness and havoc at her private girl's school. Sim also plays Miss Fritton's twin brother, a crooked bookie who locks horns with his sister over a rigged horse racing scam. The joy of this movie comes from the anarchic behavior of the ill-mannered, blithely menacing students, who are surly, dishevelled and perhaps a bit worldly beyond their years. (The film was based on a series of drawings by cartoonist Ronald Searle, sort of a "Pippi Longstocking" meets "Lord Of The Flies" scenario...) There are also several choice character roles: Sims' gender-bending aside, there is a magnificent performance by George Cole, as "Flash Harry", a fast-talking but quite loveable con artist who helps sell the bootleg liquor the Fourth Form girls make in chemistry class, and Joyce Grenfell as a horsey, inept policewoman who is sent in undercover to find out just what's going on at St. Trinian's. As with many postwar British comedies, the underlying theme is of a crass new age threatening to overtake the decorum of the old, established order, as typified by the hypocrisies of the adults in the film (Sim and the slovenly, venal school staff) and the more likeable slickness and unapologetic hucksterism of the Flash Harry character. The depictation of the chaotic, unruly, cigarette smoking girls -- American style juvenile delinquents! Egad! -- is also pretty funny. The film runs at a brisk, slapstick pace, and the humor is often rather obvious and unsubtle, but when it hits the mark, it's a delight.