School for Scoundrels (1960 film)
Encyclopedia
School for Scoundrels is a 1960 British comedy film
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...

 inspired by the "Gamesmanship
Gamesmanship
Gamesmanship is the use of dubious methods to win a game. It has been described as "Pushing the rules to the limit without getting caught, using whatever dubious methods possible to achieve the desired end"...

" series of books by Stephen Potter
Stephen Potter
Stephen Meredith Potter was a British author best known for his mocking self-help books, and film and television derivatives from them....

. The main character, Henry Palfrey (Ian Carmichael
Ian Carmichael
Ian Gillett Carmichael, OBE was an English film, stage, television and radio actor.-Early life:Carmichael was born in Hull, in the East Riding of Yorkshire. The son of an optician, he was educated at Scarborough College and Bromsgrove School, before training as an actor at RADA...

), is a failure in sport and love, and victim of conmen
Confidence trick
A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group by gaining their confidence. A confidence artist is an individual working alone or in concert with others who exploits characteristics of the human psyche such as dishonesty and honesty, vanity, compassion, credulity, irresponsibility,...

. He enrols at the "School of Lifemanship" in Yeovil
Yeovil
Yeovil is a town and civil parish in south Somerset, England. The parish had a population of 27,949 at the 2001 census, although the wider urban area had a population of 42,140...

, run by Dr. Potter (Alastair Sim
Alastair Sim
Alastair George Bell Sim, CBE was a Scottish character actor who appeared in a string of classic British films. He is best remembered in the role of Ebenezer Scrooge in the 1951 film Scrooge, and for his portrayal of Miss Fritton, the headmistress in two St. Trinian's films...

), who teaches him how to win in life and get the better of his rival Raymond Delauney (Terry-Thomas
Terry-Thomas
Thomas Terry Hoar Stevens was a distinctive English comic actor, known as Terry-Thomas. He was famous for his portrayal of disreputable members of the upper classes, especially cads and toffs, with the trademark gap in his front teeth, cigarette holder, smoking jacket, and catch-phrases such as...

), through various underhanded, but not exactly dishonest, means. It was remade
School for Scoundrels (2006 film)
School for Scoundrels is a 2006 American comedy film, starring Billy Bob Thornton and Jon Heder, and directed by Todd Phillips. The film is based on the 1960 British film of the same name...

 in 2006. In Bollywood, it was remade in 1975 under the title Chhoti Si Baat

Plot

The story is divided into three parts, and is told partly in flashback
Flashback (narrative)
Flashback is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached. Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story’s primary sequence of events or to fill in crucial backstory...

s.

The protagonist Henry Palfrey (Ian Carmichael
Ian Carmichael
Ian Gillett Carmichael, OBE was an English film, stage, television and radio actor.-Early life:Carmichael was born in Hull, in the East Riding of Yorkshire. The son of an optician, he was educated at Scarborough College and Bromsgrove School, before training as an actor at RADA...

) is seen arriving a Yeovil
Yeovil
Yeovil is a town and civil parish in south Somerset, England. The parish had a population of 27,949 at the 2001 census, although the wider urban area had a population of 42,140...

 railway station and making his way to the "School of Lifemanship", which is run by "Stephen Potter" (Alastair Sim
Alastair Sim
Alastair George Bell Sim, CBE was a Scottish character actor who appeared in a string of classic British films. He is best remembered in the role of Ebenezer Scrooge in the 1951 film Scrooge, and for his portrayal of Miss Fritton, the headmistress in two St. Trinian's films...

), and arrives late for his appointment. He overhears Potter explaining the principles of lifemanship
Gamesmanship
Gamesmanship is the use of dubious methods to win a game. It has been described as "Pushing the rules to the limit without getting caught, using whatever dubious methods possible to achieve the desired end"...

 to the new intake: 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
Janette Scott
Thora Janette Scott is an English actress. She was born in Morecambe, England. She is the daughter of actors Jimmy Scott and Thora Hird. She started her acting career as a child actress, known as Janette Scott, and became a popular leading lady...

) 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
Edward Chapman (actor)
Edward Chapman was an English actor who starred in many films and television programmes, but is chiefly remembered as "Mr. Wilfred Grimsdale", the officious superior and comic foil to Norman Wisdom's character of Pitkin in many of his films from the late 1950s and 1960s.Chapman was born in...

), 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
John Le Mesurier
John Le Mesurier was a BAFTA Award-winning English actor. He is most famous for his role as Sergeant Arthur Wilson in the popular 1970s BBC comedy Dad's Army.-Career:...

) will not be persuaded otherwise. The situation is somewhat saved by Raymond Delauney (Terry-Thomas
Terry-Thomas
Thomas Terry Hoar Stevens was a distinctive English comic actor, known as Terry-Thomas. He was famous for his portrayal of disreputable members of the upper classes, especially cads and toffs, with the trademark gap in his front teeth, cigarette holder, smoking jacket, and catch-phrases such as...

), a sometime tennis partner of Palfrey's, who invites them to his table and begins to try to seduce April.

Production

Potter's original Gamesmanship
Gamesmanship
Gamesmanship is the use of dubious methods to win a game. It has been described as "Pushing the rules to the limit without getting caught, using whatever dubious methods possible to achieve the desired end"...

 series had been popular books in the 1950s, but were not written in a narrative form, so the device was adopted that Potter (Alastair Sim
Alastair Sim
Alastair George Bell Sim, CBE was a Scottish character actor who appeared in a string of classic British films. He is best remembered in the role of Ebenezer Scrooge in the 1951 film Scrooge, and for his portrayal of Miss Fritton, the headmistress in two St. Trinian's films...

) had set up a "College of Lifemanship" in Yeovil
Yeovil
Yeovil is a town and civil parish in south Somerset, England. The parish had a population of 27,949 at the 2001 census, although the wider urban area had a population of 42,140...

 to educate those seeking to apply his methods for success. Some interest had previously been shown by Cary Grant
Cary Grant
Archibald Alexander Leach , better known by his stage name Cary Grant, was an English actor who later took U.S. citizenship...

 (with Carl Foreman
Carl Foreman
Carl Foreman, CBE was an American screenwriter and film producer who wrote the notable film High Noon. He was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studio bosses in the 1950s.-Biography:...

) 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. The title is a reference to Richard Brinsley Sheridan
Richard Brinsley Sheridan
Richard Brinsley Butler Sheridan was an Irish-born playwright and poet and long-term owner of the London Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. For thirty-two years he was also a Whig Member of the British House of Commons for Stafford , Westminster and Ilchester...

's "The School for Scandal
The School for Scandal
The School for Scandal is a play written by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. It was first performed in London at Drury Lane Theatre on May 8, 1777.The prologue, written by David Garrick, commends the play, its subject, and its author to the audience...

".

Although the film credits its producer, Hal E. Chester
Hal E. Chester
Hal E. "Hally" Chester is a American film producer and former child actor.He is best known for his appearances in Universal Studios's Little Tough Guys series at the end of the 1930s. His last appearance in this series was in Sea Raiders...

, and Patricia Moyes
Patricia Moyes
Patricia Pakenham-Walsh, a.k.a. Patricia Moyes was an Irish-born British mystery writer.- Life and work :Moyes was born in Dublin on 19 January 1923 and was educated at Overstone girls' school in Northampton. She joined the WAAF in 1939. In 1946 Peter Ustinov hired her as technical assistant on his...

, the screenplay was written by Peter Ustinov
Peter Ustinov
Peter Alexander Ustinov CBE was an English actor, writer and dramatist. He was also renowned as a filmmaker, theatre and opera director, stage designer, author, screenwriter, comedian, humourist, newspaper and magazine columnist, radio broadcaster and television presenter...

 and Frank Tarloff. Its director, Robert Hamer
Robert Hamer
Robert James Hamer was a British film director and screenwriter. He was the son of the actor Gerald Hamer ....

, was sacked during filming due to his return to drinking
Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...

 and the enterprise was completed by Chester and an (uncredited) Cyril Frankel
Cyril Frankel
Cyril Frankel is a British film and television director, now retired. His career in television began in 1953 and he directed for over 30 TV programmes until 1990....

. Hamer would never work in film again, and died in 1963.

Characters and cast

The initially ineffectual hero, Henry Palfrey, was played by Ian Carmichael
Ian Carmichael
Ian Gillett Carmichael, OBE was an English film, stage, television and radio actor.-Early life:Carmichael was born in Hull, in the East Riding of Yorkshire. The son of an optician, he was educated at Scarborough College and Bromsgrove School, before training as an actor at RADA...

, who in preceding years had made a name for himself playing the "innocent abroad" in films such as Lucky Jim
Lucky Jim
Lucky Jim is an academic satire written by Kingsley Amis, first published in 1954 by Victor Gollancz. It was Amis's first novel, and won the Somerset Maugham Award for fiction...

(1958) and I'm All Right Jack
I'm All Right Jack
I'm All Right Jack is a 1959 British comedy film directed and produced by John and Roy Boulting from a script by Frank Harvey, John Boulting and Alan Hackney, based on the novel Private Life by Hackney...

(1959) for the Boulting Brothers.

The dishonest car salesmen calling themselves the "Winsome Welshmen" were Dunstan (Dennis Price
Dennis Price
Dennis Price was an English actor, remembered for his suave screen roles, particularly Louis Mazzini in Kind Hearts and Coronets, and for his portrayal of the omniscient valet Jeeves in 1960s television adaptations of P. G...

) and Dudley (Peter Jones
Peter Jones (actor)
Peter Jones was an English actor, screenwriter and broadcaster.-Early life and career:Jones was born in Wem, Shropshire and he was educated at the Wem Grammar School and Ellesmere College. He made his first appearance as an actor in Wolverhampton at the age of 16 and then appeared in repertory...

). 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
Peter Ustinov
Peter Alexander Ustinov CBE was an English actor, writer and dramatist. He was also renowned as a filmmaker, theatre and opera director, stage designer, author, screenwriter, comedian, humourist, newspaper and magazine columnist, radio broadcaster and television presenter...

 and again Peter Jones; their catch phrase "run for it!" was used in "School for Scoundrels".

Then a married couple, John Le Mesurier
John Le Mesurier
John Le Mesurier was a BAFTA Award-winning English actor. He is most famous for his role as Sergeant Arthur Wilson in the popular 1970s BBC comedy Dad's Army.-Career:...

 and Hattie Jacques
Hattie Jacques
Josephine Edwina Jaques was an English comedy actress, known as Hattie Jacques.Starting her career in the 1940s, Jacques first gained attention through her radio appearances with Tommy Handley on ITMA and later with Tony Hancock on Hancock's Half Hour...

 also appeared, the latter giving a performance parodying Joan Greenwood
Joan Greenwood
Joan Greenwood was an English actress. Born in Chelsea, she studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Her husky voice, coupled with her slow, precise elocution, was her trademark...

's distinctive vocal style.

Locations

School for Scoundrels was made at Elstree Studios
Elstree Studios
"Elstree Studios" refers to any of several film studios that were based in the towns of Borehamwood and Elstree in Hertfordshire, England, since film production begun in 1927.-Name:...

 and location scenes were largely shot in the vicinity:
  • Henry Palfrey has a flat
    Apartment
    An apartment or flat is a self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building...

     on the top floor of Thurlby Croft, Mulberry Close, Hendon
    Hendon
    Hendon is a London suburb situated northwest of Charing Cross.-History:Hendon was historically a civil parish in the county of Middlesex. The manor is described in Domesday , but the name, 'Hendun' meaning 'at the highest hill', is earlier...

    .
  • Hertford East railway station
    Hertford East railway station
    Hertford East railway station is one of two stations in Hertford in Hertfordshire, England. The station is 39 km north of London Liverpool Street. It is fifteen minutes' walk from Hertford North station....

     stands in for Yeovil
    Yeovil
    Yeovil is a town and civil parish in south Somerset, England. The parish had a population of 27,949 at the 2001 census, although the wider urban area had a population of 42,140...

     station.
  • The tennis club featured in scenes in which Palfrey is embarrassed by the Swiftmobile and later turns the tables on Delaunay is the Edgwarebury Hotel (now the Corus Hotel), Edgwarebury Lane, Borehamwood
    Borehamwood
    -Film industry:Since the 1920s, the town has been home to several film studios and many shots of its streets are included in final cuts of 20th century British films. This earned it the nickname of the "British Hollywood"...

    .
  • The car showroom operated by the "Winsome Welshmen" is in Pinner Road, Harrow
    London Borough of Harrow
    The London Borough of Harrow is a London borough of north-west London. It borders Hertfordshire to the north and other London boroughs: Hillingdon to the west, Ealing to the south, Brent to the south-east and Barnet to the east.-History:...

    , and is still a car sales outlet.

Vehicles

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.

The car driven by Terry-Thomas
Terry-Thomas
Thomas Terry Hoar Stevens was a distinctive English comic actor, known as Terry-Thomas. He was famous for his portrayal of disreputable members of the upper classes, especially cads and toffs, with the trademark gap in his front teeth, cigarette holder, smoking jacket, and catch-phrases such as...

 in the film, stated as a "New Bellini", is in fact a disguised Aston Martin DB3S
Aston Martin DB3S
The Aston Martin DB3S was a sports racing car built by Aston Martin as a replacement for the heavy and uncompetitive Aston Martin DB3. In total 31 cars were made, with 11 works cars and 20 cars being sold for customer use. The DB3S was introduced in 1953 and it proved somewhat more successful than...

.

Reception

Leslie Halliwell
Leslie Halliwell
Robert James Leslie Halliwell was a British film encyclopaedist and television impresario who in 1965 compiled The Filmgoer's Companion, the first one-volume encyclopaedia devoted to all aspects of the cinema. He followed it a dozen years later with Halliwell's Film Guide, another monumental work...

 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).

Michael Brooke, reviewing for the British Film Institute
British Film Institute
The British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...

, criticised the film as having "little sign of the elegance and wit that characterised earlier Hamer films such as Kind Hearts and Coronets
Kind Hearts and Coronets
Kind Hearts and Coronets is a 1949 British black comedy feature film. The plot is loosely based on the 1907 novel Israel Rank: The Autobiography of a Criminal by Roy Horniman, with the screenplay written by Robert Hamer and John Dighton and the film directed by Hamer...

or The Spider and the Fly", but praised its script and performances., particularly those of Terry-Thomas
Terry-Thomas
Thomas Terry Hoar Stevens was a distinctive English comic actor, known as Terry-Thomas. He was famous for his portrayal of disreputable members of the upper classes, especially cads and toffs, with the trademark gap in his front teeth, cigarette holder, smoking jacket, and catch-phrases such as...

 and an under-used Sim
Alastair Sim
Alastair George Bell Sim, CBE was a Scottish character actor who appeared in a string of classic British films. He is best remembered in the role of Ebenezer Scrooge in the 1951 film Scrooge, and for his portrayal of Miss Fritton, the headmistress in two St. Trinian's films...

.

Cast

  • Ian Carmichael
    Ian Carmichael
    Ian Gillett Carmichael, OBE was an English film, stage, television and radio actor.-Early life:Carmichael was born in Hull, in the East Riding of Yorkshire. The son of an optician, he was educated at Scarborough College and Bromsgrove School, before training as an actor at RADA...

     as Henry Palfrey
  • Terry-Thomas
    Terry-Thomas
    Thomas Terry Hoar Stevens was a distinctive English comic actor, known as Terry-Thomas. He was famous for his portrayal of disreputable members of the upper classes, especially cads and toffs, with the trademark gap in his front teeth, cigarette holder, smoking jacket, and catch-phrases such as...

     as Raymond Delauney
  • Alastair Sim
    Alastair Sim
    Alastair George Bell Sim, CBE was a Scottish character actor who appeared in a string of classic British films. He is best remembered in the role of Ebenezer Scrooge in the 1951 film Scrooge, and for his portrayal of Miss Fritton, the headmistress in two St. Trinian's films...

     as Mr. S. Potter
  • Janette Scott
    Janette Scott
    Thora Janette Scott is an English actress. She was born in Morecambe, England. She is the daughter of actors Jimmy Scott and Thora Hird. She started her acting career as a child actress, known as Janette Scott, and became a popular leading lady...

     as April Smith
  • Dennis Price
    Dennis Price
    Dennis Price was an English actor, remembered for his suave screen roles, particularly Louis Mazzini in Kind Hearts and Coronets, and for his portrayal of the omniscient valet Jeeves in 1960s television adaptations of P. G...

     as Dunstan Dorchester
  • Peter Jones
    Peter Jones (actor)
    Peter Jones was an English actor, screenwriter and broadcaster.-Early life and career:Jones was born in Wem, Shropshire and he was educated at the Wem Grammar School and Ellesmere College. He made his first appearance as an actor in Wolverhampton at the age of 16 and then appeared in repertory...

     as Dudley Dorchester
  • Edward Chapman
    Edward Chapman (actor)
    Edward Chapman was an English actor who starred in many films and television programmes, but is chiefly remembered as "Mr. Wilfred Grimsdale", the officious superior and comic foil to Norman Wisdom's character of Pitkin in many of his films from the late 1950s and 1960s.Chapman was born in...

     as Gloatbridge
  • John Le Mesurier
    John Le Mesurier
    John Le Mesurier was a BAFTA Award-winning English actor. He is most famous for his role as Sergeant Arthur Wilson in the popular 1970s BBC comedy Dad's Army.-Career:...

     as Head Waiter
  • Irene Handl
    Irene Handl
    -Life:Irene Handl was born in Maida Vale, London, the daughter of an Austrian banker father and French mother. She took to acting at the relatively advanced age of 36, and studied at the acting school run by the sister of Dame Sybil Thorndike...

     as Mrs. Stringer
  • Kynaston Reeves
    Kynaston Reeves
    Kynaston Reeves was christened Philip Arthur Reeves, and was an English character actor who appeared in numerous films and many television plays and series.-Career:...

     as General
  • Hattie Jacques
    Hattie Jacques
    Josephine Edwina Jaques was an English comedy actress, known as Hattie Jacques.Starting her career in the 1940s, Jacques first gained attention through her radio appearances with Tommy Handley on ITMA and later with Tony Hancock on Hancock's Half Hour...

     as 1st Instructress
  • Hugh Paddick
    Hugh Paddick
    Hugh William Paddick was an English actor, whose most notable role was in the 1960s BBC radio show Round the Horne in sketches such as Charles and Fiona and Julian and Sandy...

     as Instructor
  • Barbara Roscoe as 2nd Instructress
  • Gerald Campion
    Gerald Campion
    Gerald Theron Campion , was an English actor best-known for his role as Billy Bunter in a 1950s television adaptation of books by Frank Richards....

     as Proudfoot
  • Monte Landis
    Monte Landis
    Monte Landis is an American character actor best known for playing the comic foil in multiple episodes of The Monkees, most notably the Devil in "The Devil and Peter Tork".-Partial filmography:*The Mouse That Roared...

     as Fleetsnod
  • Jeremy Lloyd
    Jeremy Lloyd
    Jeremy Lloyd is an English writer, screenwriter, author and actor, best known as co-author and writer of several successful British sitcoms.-Career:...

     as Dingle
  • Charles Lamb
    Charles Lamb (actor)
    Charles Lamb was a British film and television actor.His longest role was as Mrs Dale's gardener, Monument, in the radio soap opera Mrs Dale's Diary.-Selected filmography:* Once a Crook...

     as Carpenter
  • Anita Sharp-Bolster as Maid
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