| School for Scoundrels | |
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Theatrical release poster by Tom Jung |
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| Directed by | Robert Hamer |
| Produced by | Hal E. Chester |
| Written by | Hal E. Chester Patricia Moyes |
| Starring | Ian Carmichael Terry-Thomas Janette Scott Alastair Sim |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pathé |
| Release date(s) | April 1960 |
| Running time | 94 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
School for Scoundrels[1] is a 1960 British comedy film inspired by the "Gamesmanship" series of books by Stephen Potter. The main character, Henry Palfrey (Ian Carmichael), is a failure in sport and love, and victim of conmen. He enrols at the "School of Lifemanship" in Yeovil, run by Dr. Potter (Alastair Sim), who teaches him how to win in life and get the better of his rival Raymond Delauney (Terry-Thomas), through various underhanded, but not exactly dishonest, means. It was remade in 2006. In Bollywood, it was remade in 1975 under the title Chhoti Si Baat
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The story is divided into three parts, and is told partly in flashbacks.
The protagonist Henry Palfrey (Ian Carmichael) is seen arriving a Yeovil railway station and making his way to the "School of Lifemanship", which is run by "Stephen Potter" (Alastair Sim), and arrives late for his appointment. He overhears Potter explaining the principles of lifemanship to the new intake:
Well, gentlemen, lifemanship is the science of being one up on your opponents at all times. It is the art of making him feel that somewhere, somehow he has become less than you - less desirable, less worthy - less blessed. Who then, you ask, are your opponents? Everybody in the world who is not you. And the purpose of your life must be to be one-up on them because, and mark this well, he who is not one-up is one-down.[2]
Palfrey is given an object lesson in this when he has his interview with Potter, who proceeds to win a name-calling game; undeterred, Palfrey explains that he is a failure and it becomes plain that this is all due to a woman.
In flashback, Palfrey recounts his first meeting with April Smith (Janette Scott) in which he knocks parcels from her hands at a bus-stop; however, he manages to arrange a date with her. The next scene shows Palfrey at work as the head of his company, which is dominated by his senior clerk Gloatbridge (Edward Chapman), and asks Gloatbridge to book a table for dinner for him and April. When they arrive at the restaurant, however, Palfrey and April find that the booking has been made in the wrong name and the head waiter (John Le Mesurier) will not be persuaded otherwise. The situation is somewhat saved by Raymond Delauney (Terry-Thomas), a sometime tennis partner of Palfrey's, who invites them to his table and begins to try to seduce April.
Potter's original Gamesmanship series had been popular books in the 1950s, but were not written in a narrative form,[3] so the device was adopted that Potter (Alastair Sim) had set up a "College of Lifemanship" in Yeovil to educate those seeking to apply his methods for success.[3] Some interest had previously been shown by Cary Grant (with Carl Foreman) in a filmed version of Potter's books, but this failed when no way could be found of translating the dry humour for an American audience.[2] The title is a reference to Richard Brinsley Sheridan's "The School for Scandal".[2]
Although the film credits its producer, Hal E. Chester, and Patricia Moyes, the screenplay was written by Peter Ustinov and Frank Tarloff.[3] Its director, Robert Hamer, was sacked during filming due to his return to drinking and the enterprise was completed by Chester and an (uncredited) Cyril Frankel.[3] Hamer would never work in film again, and died in 1963.[3]
The initially ineffectual hero, Henry Palfrey, was played by Ian Carmichael, who in preceding years had made a name for himself playing the "innocent abroad" in films such as Lucky Jim (1958) and I'm All Right Jack (1959) for the Boulting Brothers.[2]
The dishonest car salesmen calling themselves the "Winsome Welshmen" were Dunstan (Dennis Price) and Dudley (Peter Jones). The characters were based on similar ones in a 1950s BBC radio comedy series, "In All Directions", in which they were played by Peter Ustinov and again Peter Jones; their catch phrase "run for it!" was used in "School for Scoundrels".[2]
Then a married couple, John Le Mesurier and Hattie Jacques also appeared, the latter giving a performance parodying Joan Greenwood's distinctive vocal style.[2]
School for Scoundrels was made at Elstree Studios and location scenes were largely shot in the vicinity:[4]
The film uses notable vehicles as plot devices. Palfrey foolishly buys a "1924 4-litre Swiftmobile" from the crooked "Winsome Welshmen". Later in the film he succeeds in trading the car back to them for an ex-works Austin-Healey 100-six and £100. The "Swiftmobile" was in fact based upon a 1928 4½ litre Open four-seater Bentley, with a custom two seat open body. The car, minus the body, was sold by the studio in 1961 for £50, and sold (with a new body) at auction in 2003 for £110,000. The Austin-Healey 100-six used in the film was passed in at auction in the 1970s at around £30,000.[9]
The car driven by Terry-Thomas in the film, stated as a "New Bellini", is in fact a disguised Aston Martin DB3S.[9]
Leslie Halliwell described the film as "an amusing trifle, basically a series of sketches by familiar comic actors", and awarded it one star (of a maximum of four).[10]
Michael Brooke, reviewing for the British Film Institute, criticised the film as having "little sign of the elegance and wit that characterised earlier Hamer films such as Kind Hearts and Coronets or The Spider and the Fly", but praised its script and performances., particularly those of Terry-Thomas and an under-used Sim.[3]
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