Belles of St.Trinians

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.


An innovative British comedy   May 30, 2003
Joe Sixpack -- Slipcue.com (...in Middle America)
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.


A classic   November 13, 2002
Mark Newbold (Pittsburg, KS United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

Before the Goon show and Monty Python there was the Trinian series. Examples of innovative British comedy. Some of the later Trinian films are real stinkers. This is the original and it is simply one of the funniest films ever made-period. If you watch this and the 1951 version of "A Christmas Carol" and do not come away convinced that Alastair Sim was one of the great actors of all time, there's no hope for you.


Inspired Lunacy   October 25, 2002
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

In this and the sequel movies about "St. Trinian's School for Girls" an inspired British ensemble cast, led by the matchless Alastair Sim, carry on in the most inspired tradition of British comedy. Alastair Sim plays a dual role, both as headmistress of the school and as her shady uncle. Paraphrasing the words of the headmistress, "Other schools for young girls sadly do not prepare young girls for the cold cruel world, but in the case of St. Trinian's girls, it is the cold cruel world which is not prepared." I cannot WAIT, I PLEAD, for the someday release of a DVD set of the entire St. Trinian's series, an "All Class Reunion."

If the madcap humor of Monty Python or Mel Brooks is your cup of tea, do not miss St. Trinian's!!


A Great British Comedy Institution   July 4, 2000
Byron Kolln (the corner where Broadway meets Hollywood)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

This film,the first of what was to be four films centered around the awful schoolgirls,is a riot.With an esteemed cast that includes Alastair Sim,Beryl Reid and Joyce Grenfell.

The other sequels are 'Blue Murder at St Trinians','The Pure Hell of St Trinians',and 'The Great St Trinians Train Robbery'.

The latter introduced Dora Bryan as the new headmistress (the first played by an actual woman!),the amorous Amber Spottiswood.

Others who lent their talents to these films include Terry-Thomas,Dilys Laye,Judith Furse (as Maud Hackshaw),and Sabrina.