Belles Of St Trinian's - 60th Anniversary Edition [1954] [Blu-ray]

Description

The first and best of a series of films based on the cartoons of Ronald Searle depicting a demonic girl's school, 1954's The Belles Of St Trinians is a pleasantly anarchic romp. However, it's indebted to film makers Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat's own, wittier 1950 movie The Happiest Days Of Our Lives, which also featured Alastair Sim and Joyce Grenfell in starring roles. Here, Grenfell again sparkles as a clumsy young bluestocking. She's a police sergeant gone undercover to investigate the dubious goings on at Millicent Fritton's establishment for young ladies, which turn out to include the use of a chemistry lab as a liquor distillery and low tactics on the hockey field which are rather less than jolly. The plot involving the nobbling of an Arab Sheikh's racehorse is negligible, while the schoolgirls shine en masse rather than as individuals. George Cole is a decent spiv but it's Sim who carries the day in a dual role as dodgy bookie and his sister, headmistress Ms Fritton. Sim's performance is a wonderfully plausible tour de force of female impersonation, which considerably outshines later such efforts by the likes of Dustin Hoffman (Tootsie)and Robin Williams (Mrs Doubtfire). --David Stubbs