Long, long ago (1947,
in fact), a former academic by the name of Stephen Potter wrote a spoof
self-help book entitled The Theory and Practice of Gamesmanship. It was subtitled The Art of Winning Games
Without Actually Cheating, so you get the drift on how the gag worked. It
was really about how to cheat and get away with it. It was ridiculously popular
and Potter wrote sequels throughout the ‘50s. In fact, the suffix “-manship”
became part of the English language and we still use it today. So like any
cultural phenomenon, somebody had to make a movie of it. But how do you turn a spoof
self-help book into a film? Well it took a while, but they got there in the
end.
Henry Palfrey (Ian
Carmichael) is a reasonably well-off middle-class type who just happens to be
hopeless at all he does. When he meets his true love April (Janette Scott), she
is inevitably taken away by everyone’s favourite cad, Terry-Thomas. Actually,
he’s Raymond Delauney but he might as well be called Terry-Thomas as it’s the
same part he always played (“Oh to be in
England now April is here” – classy stuff). So Palfrey enrolls in Dr.
Potter’s (Alastair Sim) “School of Lifemanship” (in Yeovil, of all
places) where he learns you are either “one-up
or one-down”. Clever, eh? Turn the author into a character and set a story
around the fictional school (the titular School
for Scoundrels): we have a film. Potter and his staff teach Palfrey all
there is to know about Lifemanship and our hapless hero is unleashed on his
enemies to turn the tables.
In a sense, this
was actually a bit of a lazy movie. Everyone involved is playing the parts
they’d become so familiar to the British public for playing. Carmichael is
innocent, Sim is sleazy and Terry-Thomas is Terry-Thomas. But actually that’s
why it works so well. It just seems like a celebration of British comics of the
era, all doing what they do best with genuine chemistry between them. In the
unlikely event you’re not familiar with Terry-Thomas, then this is the one to
see as it’s probably his best role: he really is a bounder. In addition to
that, you’ve got John Le Mesurier as a sniffy maître d’, Peter Jones (yes The
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy himself) as a dodgy car salesman and a superb cameo from Hattie Jacques that we won’t ruin. Throw in a moral ending (although we would take issue with this – he only gets the girl by being a git even if he does see the error of his ways afterwards) and one of the best breaking-of-the-fourth-wall moments ever by Sim and you have a movie you’d have to be a bit miserable not to like .
Special Features: Interviews / Trailer
SCHOOL FOR SCOUNDRELS
(1960) / DIRECTOR: ROBERT HAMER, CYRIL FRANKEL / SCREENPLAY: VARIOUS /
STARRING: IAN CARMICHAEL, TERRY-THOMAS, JANETTE SCOTT, ALASTAIR SIM / RELEASED:
OCTOBER 5TH
Long,
long ago (1947,
in fact), a former academic by the name of Stephen Potter wrote a spoof
self-help book entitled The Theory and Practice of Gamesmanship. It was subtitled The Art of Winning Games
Without Actually Cheating, so you get the drift on how the gag worked. It
was really about how to cheat and get away with it. It was ridiculously popular
and Potter wrote sequels throughout the ‘50s. In fact, the suffix “-manship”
became part of the English language and we still use it today. So like any
cultural phenomenon, somebody had to make a movie of it. But how do you turn a spoof
self-help book into a film? Well it took a while, but they got there in the
end.
Henry Palfrey (Ian
Carmichael) is a reasonably well-off middle-class type who just happens to be
hopeless at all he does. When he meets his true love April (Janette Scott), she
is inevitably taken away by everyone’s favourite cad, Terry-Thomas. Actually,
he’s Raymond Delauney but he might as well be called Terry-Thomas as it’s the
same part he always played (“Oh to be in
England now April is here” – classy stuff). So Palfrey enrolls in Dr.
Potter’s (Alastair Sim) “School of Lifemanship” (in Yeovil, of all
places) where he learns you are either “one-up
or one-down”. Clever, eh? Turn the author into a character and set a story
around the fictional school (the titular School
for Scoundrels): we have a film. Potter and his staff teach Palfrey all
there is to know about Lifemanship and our hapless hero is unleashed on his
enemies to turn the tables.
In a sense, this
was actually a bit of a lazy movie. Everyone involved is playing the parts
they’d become so familiar to the British public for playing. Carmichael is
innocent, Sim is sleazy and Terry-Thomas is Terry-Thomas. But actually that’s
why it works so well. It just seems like a celebration of British comics of the
era, all doing what they do best with genuine chemistry between them. In the
unlikely event you’re not familiar with Terry-Thomas, then this is the one to
see as it’s probably his best role: he really is a bounder. In addition to
that, you’ve got John Le Mesurier as a sniffy maître d’, Peter Jones (yes The
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy himself) as a dodgy car salesman and a
superb cameo from Hattie Jacques that we won’t ruin. Throw in a moral ending (although we
would take issue with this – he only gets the girl by being a git even if he
does see the error of his ways afterwards) and one of the best
breaking-of-the-fourth-wall moments ever by Sim and you have a movie you’d have
to be a bit miserable not to like [You mean like people who just picked
apart the moral of the story? – Ed]. And if you’re that much of a misery-guts, you can at least be
fascinated by how the British class system functioned in the late ‘50s [You certainly know
how to have a good time – Ed].
Special Features: Interviews / Trailer
SCHOOL FOR SCOUNDRELS
(1960) / DIRECTOR: ROBERT HAMER, CYRIL FRANKEL / SCREENPLAY: VARIOUS /
STARRING: IAN CARMICHAEL, TERRY-THOMAS, JANETTE SCOTT, ALASTAIR SIM / RELEASED:
OCTOBER 5TH
