The Happiest Days Of Your Life is a 1950 British comedy with Margaret Rutherford and Alastair Sim. That's two good reasons to take a gander and the guys behind the scenes are favorites too. It's produced by Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat from a play by John Dighton. Frank directed the film and he co-wrote the screenplay with John. Frank and Sidney went on produce the St Trinian's films and you know what a fan of those I am. The poster for THDOYL is decorated with Ronald Searle drawings. He was responsible for the drawings of the St Trinian's girls that lead to that series.
Alastair plays the head of Nutbourne College, it's a boys school that's just getting ready for the students to return as we pop in to have a look around. They find out at the last minute that another school will be billeted at Nutbourne. The staff are poleaxed when a bunch of women teachers from St Swithin's Girl's School arrive. Even more formidable is the head played by Margaret. There's a scramble for power at the top of the heap and Margaret gets a bit of the upper hand. The girls get the dorms and the school's housekeeping staff depart. It's a mess and the Board of Education is no help.
It seems a never ending parade of noise with 217 students turned up to 11 crammed into that small school. There are even more complications with Alastair trying to get inspected for a job at a better college and Margaret getting a visit from some parents who need to be convinced that the school is running smoothly. There's plenty of malarkey, slapstick and snide dialog.
The cast is fun, Guy Middleton, Joyce Grenfell, Edward Rigby, Richard Wattis, Laurence Naismith, George Cole, and Stringer Davis were some that I knew from other films. Joyce would play a similar character in the St Trinian's films, she had to go undercover at St Trinian's once and almost didn't make it out alive. Richard would play the Deputy Director of Schools in St Trinian's series, his character quaked in fear at the mention of school's name, with good reason.
I really enjoyed The Happiest Days Of Your Life but I'm such a fan of all those people it was inevitable I'd like it. Not that others don't seem to like it, the IMDb score is a healthy 7.3 with 1307 votes. Sadly, there is no US DVD available, I got one from the UK. All caveats apply.
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