School for Scoundrels

School for Scoundrels (1960)

Learn to gain weight by LOSING scruples!

Hapless Henry Palfrey is patronised by his self-important chief clerk at work, ignored by restaurant waiters, conned by shady second-hand car salesmen, and, worst of all, endlessly wrong-footed by unspeakably rotten cad Raymond Delauney who has set his cap at April, new love of Palfrey's life. In desperation Henry enrolls at the College of Lifemanship to learn how to best such bounders and win the girl.

Date of release
1960-03-24
TMDB
6.9 / 10 (73)
Runtime
1h 34m
Genres
Comedy
Director
Robert Hamer

Casting

Interesting facts

School for Scoundrels is a 1960 British comedy film directed by Robert Hamer and starring Ian Carmichael, Terry-Thomas, Janette Scott and Alastair Sim. It was inspired by the Gamesmanship series of books by Stephen Potter. The film has been remade twice: in Bollywood as Chhoti Si Baat (1975) and in Hollywood as School for Scoundrels (2006).

Production

Some interest in creating a screen version of Stephen Potter's successful Gamesmanship series of books was shown by Cary Grant and Carl Foreman, but this project stalled when it proved difficult to translate the dry humour of the books for an American audience.

The film's title is a reference to Richard Brinsley Sheridan's 1777 comic play, The School for Scandal. As Potter's books were not written in a narrative form, the device of Potter (Alastair Sim) having set up a "College of Lifemanship" in Yeovil to educate those seeking to apply his methods for success was invented for the film. Although the film only credits Patricia Moyes and producer Hal E.

Director Robert Hamer was sacked during filming due to his drinking, and the film was completed by an uncredited Cyril Frankel and producer Chester. Hamer did not work in the film industry again, and died in 1963.

School for Scoundrels was made at Elstree Studios, and location scenes were mainly shot in the neighbouring vicinity. The location used as the tennis club was then a private members club, and is now a hotel. The hotel hosted a screening of the film in 2016 that was attended by Janette Scott, who answered questions about its filming.

In the film, Palfrey foolishly buys a "1924 4-litre Swiftmobile" from the crooked "Winsome Welshmen", and later succeeds in trading the car back to them for an ex-works Austin-Healey 100-six and 100 guineas (£105). The "Swiftmobile" was based upon a 1928 4½ litre Open four-seater Bentley, with a custom two-seat open body.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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