Based on the 1946 play of the same name by the Old Shirburnian Warren Chetham-Strode, this is a rather spiffing motion picture by a pair of Old Redingensians known as the Boulting brothers. It is jolly well written by John and the direction by his twin brother Roy is generally super but it is a bit hard to make out some of the nighttime scenes, worst luck.
The picture tells the story of a working class boy named Jack Read, played by the always cracking Richard Attenborough, attending Saintbury, a fictional public school but probably still better some real ones, eh wot? He receives a scholarship because the Fleming Report suggested that boys from different classes should attend public schools as an experiment. The other boys are absolute rotters to him when he first comes to the school, I must say. They crackle like hyenas at his accent and poor pronunciation of French and kick him in the bottom - or as he puts it, "arse," the first time that most uncouth word was used in the pictures - when he bends over to show respect to His Majesty King Henry VIII on Founder's Day. Poor old Read even considers going home but his house tutor Nigel "Lorry" Lorraine, who has lots of dangerous, radical ideas like treating people from different backgrounds equally, convinces him to show that rum lot what he is made of. With the backing and support of Lorry, good old Read eventually gets a scholarship to Cambridge, one of the two universities. Read plans to become a schoolmaster himself and I like to imagine him coming back to Saintbury after he reads history and staying that for a jolly long time like Mr. Chips.
The picture also stars Robert Flemyng, whom Attenborough would cast in his own pictures "Oh! What a Lovely War", "Young Winston" and "Shadowlands" yonks later, as Lorry and he is positively smashing in the role of a kind teacher who wants to make everything...modern and open up Saintbury to boys whose fathers don't have hereditary titles or even knighthoods. Attenborough's wife Sheila Sim stars as Lorry's girl Lynn Hartley but she and her husband only speak to each other once in the entire picture. Cecil Trouncer is perfectly spiffing as Lynn's pater Lloyd Hartley, a bit of a stinker who comes to think that Saintbury needs to move into the 20th Century. I don't see why as the 19th Century was a fine old time. Many of the other actors in the picture are tops as well such as Bernard Miles and Joan Hickson as Read's mater and pater (or "Mum" and "Dad" as he calls them), Anthony Nicholls as the very young headmaster Mr. Stringer (another blasted moderniser) and Edith Sharpe as Mrs. Hartley. The picture also features Oscar Quitak and Peter Reynolds in smaller supporting roles as Saintburians Tracey Major and Grimmett and a tiny appearance from Master Anthony Newley.
Overall, this is a jolly good show all round which makes a few cracking points about public school life and the old traditions that keep them isolated from the sort of riffraff who don't know the Royal Family personally.
The picture tells the story of a working class boy named Jack Read, played by the always cracking Richard Attenborough, attending Saintbury, a fictional public school but probably still better some real ones, eh wot? He receives a scholarship because the Fleming Report suggested that boys from different classes should attend public schools as an experiment. The other boys are absolute rotters to him when he first comes to the school, I must say. They crackle like hyenas at his accent and poor pronunciation of French and kick him in the bottom - or as he puts it, "arse," the first time that most uncouth word was used in the pictures - when he bends over to show respect to His Majesty King Henry VIII on Founder's Day. Poor old Read even considers going home but his house tutor Nigel "Lorry" Lorraine, who has lots of dangerous, radical ideas like treating people from different backgrounds equally, convinces him to show that rum lot what he is made of. With the backing and support of Lorry, good old Read eventually gets a scholarship to Cambridge, one of the two universities. Read plans to become a schoolmaster himself and I like to imagine him coming back to Saintbury after he reads history and staying that for a jolly long time like Mr. Chips.
The picture also stars Robert Flemyng, whom Attenborough would cast in his own pictures "Oh! What a Lovely War", "Young Winston" and "Shadowlands" yonks later, as Lorry and he is positively smashing in the role of a kind teacher who wants to make everything...modern and open up Saintbury to boys whose fathers don't have hereditary titles or even knighthoods. Attenborough's wife Sheila Sim stars as Lorry's girl Lynn Hartley but she and her husband only speak to each other once in the entire picture. Cecil Trouncer is perfectly spiffing as Lynn's pater Lloyd Hartley, a bit of a stinker who comes to think that Saintbury needs to move into the 20th Century. I don't see why as the 19th Century was a fine old time. Many of the other actors in the picture are tops as well such as Bernard Miles and Joan Hickson as Read's mater and pater (or "Mum" and "Dad" as he calls them), Anthony Nicholls as the very young headmaster Mr. Stringer (another blasted moderniser) and Edith Sharpe as Mrs. Hartley. The picture also features Oscar Quitak and Peter Reynolds in smaller supporting roles as Saintburians Tracey Major and Grimmett and a tiny appearance from Master Anthony Newley.
Overall, this is a jolly good show all round which makes a few cracking points about public school life and the old traditions that keep them isolated from the sort of riffraff who don't know the Royal Family personally.