It’s Great to Be Young! *** (1956, John Mills, Cecil Parker, Jeremy Spenser, John Salew) – Classic Movie Review 9485

Director Cyril Frankel’s 1956 film about a school music teacher It’s Great to Be Young! stars John Mills and Cecil Parker, along with, as the The Angel Hill Kids, Jeremy Spenser as Nicky, Dorothy Bromiley as Paulette, Brian Smith as Ginger, Wilfred Downing as Browning, Robert Dickens as Morris, Dawson France as Crowther, Carole Shelley as Peggy and Richard O’Sullivan as Lawson.

Cyril Frankel directs an energetic 1956 British Technicolor teenage musical comedy about an Angel Hill Grammar School schoolmaster, Mr Dingle (John Mills), training his pupils for the school orchestras festival. But he is in trouble with the traditional new headmaster (Cecil Parker), who wants to abolish the pupils’ band after being enraged by their jazz jam session, playing to crowds in the street to raise money. It all gets out of hand when Dingle is sacked and the sixth form stages a sit-in in the gym.

It is not great, maybe, as a storm in a teacup, but it is still a passably well done comedy drama, boosted with music and a warm-hearted, decent original story and screenplay by Dixon of Dock Green’s Ted Willis. It helps s a lot that Mills, Parker and schoolboy Jeremy Spenser give grade A performances.

Though Mills can actually play the piano, his playing in the film was dubbed by Winifred Atwell.

Song: ‘You Are My First Love’.

John Mills recalled: ‘I like it but didn’t think it had much of a chance so I turned it down. They offered me a percentage of the picture but I agreed to take my usual salary. It was a gigantic financial success.’

Also in the cast are Dorothy Bromiley, John Salew (Routledge, a senior Master), Eleanor Summerfield (Barmaid), Bryan Forbes (Mr Parkes, Organ Salesman), Brian Smith, Dawson France, Wilfred Downing, Carole Shelley, Richard O’Sullivan, Robert Dickens, Elizabeth Kentish (Mrs Castle, School Mistress), Mona Washbourne (Miss Morrow, School Mistress), Mary Merrall (Miss Wyvern, School Mistress), Derek Blomfield (Paterson, Sports Master), Norman Pierce (Publican), Marjorie Rhodes (Landlady), Eddie Byrne, Russell Waters (Mr. Scott School Inspector), Joan Benham, Jenny Jones and Susan Raie.

It’s Great to Be Young! is directed by Cyril Frankel, runs 93 minutes, is made by Associated British Picture Corporation and Marble Arch Productions, released by Associated British-Pathé, written by Ted Willis (original story and screenplay), shot by Gilbert Taylor, produced by Victor Skutezky, scored by Ray Martin, Lester Powell and John Addison, and designed by Robert Jones.

It is shot at Associated British Picture Studios, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, England, and The Royal Masonic School, Bushey, Hertfordshire, England.

‘You are My First Love’ is sung in the prologue by Ruby Murray. The record reached number 16 in the UK charts.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9485

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