The Belles of St. Trinian’s (1954)

“I can no longer afford to have continual arson about in my school ” – Millicent Fritton

Number of Times Seen – 1 (20 Dec 2021)

Brief Synopsis – A brother and sister who run a boarding school for girls in England try to use information about the horse of the father of one of their students in order to get out of debt.

My Take on it – Quite a funny premise that works well.

Alastair Sim is great in the dual lead roles and helps keep things so engaging and enjoyable throughout.

The few films that I’ve seen him in beforehand were serious dramas and I wasn’t sure if he could pull off the comedy work here, but he passed with flying colors.

The police investigation aspect of the story is the film’s biggest fault because they never seem to find their way around making it seem more serious and the attempts at comedy with it, never truly pan out.

The story is a bit too far fetched and that also takes too much away from things because they take certain situations to an extremeץ

I have no doubt that this concept came from the fact that something similar actually did happen at some point, but by taking things too far, it looses much of its legitimacy along the way despite still being fun to watch unfold.

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – The school motto, written under the silver cup stands, is “In flagrante delicto”, Latin for “a burning offense”. However, it was commonly used in British divorce cases as a euphemism for caught in the act of sex. It would, of course, hardly be the motto of a girls’ school. (From IMDB)

Rating – BAFTA Worthy (6/10)