Blue Murder at St Trinian’s **** (1957, George Cole, Terry-Thomas, Joyce Grenfell, Alastair Sim, Lionel Jeffries, Sabrina, Richard Wattis) – Classic Movie Review 2789

Alastair Sim returns as St Trinian’s headmistress Miss Millicent Frinton, though alas appears in only two scenes, put out of action tied up in the school belfry, so the English gym-slipped schoolgirls can head off for mainland Europe with a new fake headmistress after cheating to win a competition for a European goodwill trip.

The girls want to meet an Italian Prince (Guido Lorraine). Once over there in Europe, they win a game of hockey in France and a polo tournament in Italy by cheating again and find a câche of gems, in a plot similar to Will Hay’s Boys Will Be Boys (1935).

The cast of venerable performers can’t help getting laughs from writer/ producer/ director Frank Launder’s deliciously daft, spiritedly done 1957 vintage comedy treasure. It is neatly and lovingly handled once more by the team of Launder and his writer/producer partner Sidney Gilliat.

George Cole plays spiv Flash Harry who is busy running the St Trinian’s Marriage Bureau, Joyce Grenfell also returns as WPC police sergeant Pearly Gates, Terry-Thomas is Captain Romney Carlton-Ricketts, and Lionel Jeffries (in drag too!) plays Joe Mangan, father of a sixth former and hiding out at the school after a Hatton Garden diamond robbery.

Mangan is talked into travelling to Europe with the girls as their new headmistress and eventually tries to run off with the gems concealed in a water-polo ball. All five star players – Sim, Cole, Grenfell, Terry-Thomas, Jeffries – give adorable, outstanding comedic performances. Leading model Sabrina has a non-speaking part as the school swot.

Naturally, the Ministry of Education is not amused but they are amusing in the hands of Richard Wattis as Manton Bassett, Peter Jones as Prestwick, Michael Ripper as Eric the liftman and Eric Barker as Culpepper-Brown.

Also in the cast are Judith Furse, Lloyd Lamble, Thorley Walters, Kenneth Griffith, Dilys Laye, Lisa Gastoni, Ferdy Mayne, Raymond Rollett, Terry Scott, Cyril Chamberlain, Ronald Ibbs, Lisa Lee, Alma Taylor, Peter Elliott, Charles Lloyd Pack, Josie Read, Rosalind Knight, Patricia Lawrence, Marigold Russell, Vikki Hammond, Nicola Braithwaite, Mandy Harper, Moya Francis, Bernard Fox, Bill Shine, Janet Bradbury, Edwina Carroll, Marianne Brauns and Amanda Cosell.

Launder, Gilliat and Val Valentine’s screenplay is taken from Ronald Searle’s cartoon drawings.

This again extremely popular first sequel to The Belles of St Trinian’s is followed by three more sequels, starting with The Pure Hell of St Trinian’s (1960), followed by The Great St Trinian’s Train Robbery and The Wildcats of St Trinian’s (1980). It was remade in 2007 as St Trinian’s, with Rupert Everett, with a sequel in 2009, St Trinian’s 2: The Legend of Fritton’s Gold.

George Cole stars here in the last of his nine films with Alastair Sim: Cottage To Let (1941), The Happiest Days of Your Life (1950), Lady Godiva Rides Again [Bikini Baby] (1951), Scrooge [A Christmas Carol] (1951), Folly to Be Wise (1953), An Inspector Calls (1954), The Belles of St Trinian’s (1954), The Green Man (1956) and Blue Murder at St Trinian’s (1957).

Cole is one of only two actors (also Michael Ripper) to appear in all four of the original St Trinian’s films: The Belles of St Trinian’s (1954), Blue Murder at St Trinian’s (1957), The Pure Hell of St Trinian’s (1960) and The Great St Trinian’s Train Robbery (1966).

A fifth film followed belatedly, The Wildcats of St Trinian’s (1980), with a different cast and Joe Melia playing Flash Harry.

George Cole died on August 5 2015, aged 90. Adieu, dear departed.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2789

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