The inmates are running the asylum in this very funny British comedy about an all girl's school in which the students run rings around the not so rosy teachers who couldn't control them with a chair and a whip. Yes, Alastair Sim's Miss Fritton might look like a more showered version of "Matilda's" Miss Trunchbull, but she has the discipline capacity of a kitten. Indeed, Alastair Sims is in drag here, as well as playing Miss Fritton's brother, a rather sordid fellow with ties to a horse racing syndicate. When the brother learns that a Muslim princess has become a student, he brings his expelled daughter (the student ringleader) back, using his family ties to get sister to forgive her niece and take her back. Unbeknownst to the faculty, a police officer in disguise as a new teacher has arrived, and it is the seemingly prim and proper Joyce Grenfell who uses liberal forms of education to try to keep the girls in line but finds even that method cannot control these heathens who are desperate to make some cash from the local horse racing syndicate themselves. This brings in a criminal element when a valuable horse is stolen by the girls, but never underestimate the power of hundreds of screaming teens as they set their sites on increasing their paltry bank accounts.
It is the performances here which are quite more memorable than the film itself which runs about 15 minutes too long and isn't quite as funny as I hoped it would be. Certainly, Sim is superb, a comic genius even in playing humorless officials in other films, and of course, best known for arguably the most popular version of "A Christmas Carol". He fortunately does not overplay the femininity of Miss Fritton or camp it up, so he simply just looks like a rather large, eccentric British matron. Grenfell, an actress I've caught in a few movies and tremendously enjoyed, underplays her part as well, although I missed her eccentric voice that she utilized in other films. That aspect alone shows her versatility, although on occasion, you can catch a glimpse of that part of her personality. She knew that this was a straight role, so she kept that aspect of her acting chops out of it. Still, memories of those other films (and an imitation of her by Kaye Ballard on "The Mothers-in-Law") prevail. so Grenfell is an actress quite worth exploring.
Some of the other well known British character actors really are just part of the ensemble including Beryl Reid, deliciously teaching her students geography through the history of champagne, and a very masculine made up Hermoine Baddeley, but it is the ensemble of girls (one of whom is drawn and quartered in an attempt to get information from) who get the most laughs in addition to Sim and Grenfell.
It is the performances here which are quite more memorable than the film itself which runs about 15 minutes too long and isn't quite as funny as I hoped it would be. Certainly, Sim is superb, a comic genius even in playing humorless officials in other films, and of course, best known for arguably the most popular version of "A Christmas Carol". He fortunately does not overplay the femininity of Miss Fritton or camp it up, so he simply just looks like a rather large, eccentric British matron. Grenfell, an actress I've caught in a few movies and tremendously enjoyed, underplays her part as well, although I missed her eccentric voice that she utilized in other films. That aspect alone shows her versatility, although on occasion, you can catch a glimpse of that part of her personality. She knew that this was a straight role, so she kept that aspect of her acting chops out of it. Still, memories of those other films (and an imitation of her by Kaye Ballard on "The Mothers-in-Law") prevail. so Grenfell is an actress quite worth exploring.
Some of the other well known British character actors really are just part of the ensemble including Beryl Reid, deliciously teaching her students geography through the history of champagne, and a very masculine made up Hermoine Baddeley, but it is the ensemble of girls (one of whom is drawn and quartered in an attempt to get information from) who get the most laughs in addition to Sim and Grenfell.