Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

I watched the Belles of St Trinians for the first time in 25 years on a digital channel yesterday and for all it is dated now( well it was made 58 years ago), the film is still hilarious. Alistair Sim is brilliant as the corrupt, betting obsessed headmistress and a very young George Cole is excellent as the spiv Flash Harry. Also considering British schools were generally very strict places in the fifties, people growing up in this era must have wanted to be in a school where rules didn't exist and where the girls betted on horses and made illegal booze and goaded the teachers. A comedy gem which has plenty of hilarious moments( the hockey match, the old girls visit and the parents day) and which is made better by such a talented cast. Other St Trinians films are still watchable, although Wildcats was a not very good attempt to update the franchise for the eighties, but Belles is by far the best.

Before I get to reviewing this film's merits, I should point out that this DVD needs captions--as it has none. While the English accents are not as thick as in some films, for us non-Brits it sure would help to have DVD captions or closed captioning--particularly if you are hard of hearing like I am.The film is set at a god-awful girls school, St. Trinian's. The teachers are unqualified and indifferent--mostly because the kids are so incorrigible and unruly. It all seems to be this way because the Headmistress is a complete idiot. Interestingly, this lady is played by Alastair Sim--who also plays the part of her brother, a professional gambler. When the kids blow things up, kidnap or run amok, she seems to think it's a case of 'girls being girls'. All she really seems to care about it keeping her debt-ridden school afloat--by whatever means is necessary.Watching this film was a lot like watching a hundred kids like the one from "Problem Child" as they go about their wicked ways. At first it was rather cute, but after a while I felt a bit numb about it. Fortunately, there is a bit of plot later in the film about gamblers and a kidnapped horse. While it's all mildly funny, I also was left inexplicably flat about it--and I am not sure why. I mean, seeing and hearing Sim playing a lady was great and the idea of a school full of horrid kids is cute...but the film didn't seem to have a lot more to offer--no deeper meaning or significance. It's decent but don't expect an Ealing comedy...though Sim is quite good.

The St Trinian's film series, in which a rowdy crowd of girls, their drunken and appalling teachers, and their 'refined' headmistress (played by a man, natch), remain high in any league table of Britain's comedy moments.In a cast headed by the superb Alistair Sim (Miss Fritton, the headmistress; and her brother, race shark Clarence) we also find Joyce Grenfell as a policewoman joining the staff undercover (and no one was better than Grenfell at this jolly hockey kind of stuff), Beryl Reid as a mannish, drunken chemistry teacher, Hermoine Baddeley and Irene Handl as memorably unsuitable members of staff, George Cole as 'flash' Harry, an odd-job man who deals with the export of the St Trinian's bathtub gin and places racing bets for the girls, and the incomparable Richard Wattis as a harassed Ministry of Education inspector. The girls themselves include some memorable turns - Vivienne Martin as chain-smoking Bella, Belinda Lee as horny Amanda, also Barbara Windsor and Carol White are somewhere in there. The plot revolves around a race horse, Arab Boy, who ends up in the fourth-former's dormitory; a side plot involves missing Ministers of Education, who have become part of the staff as 'the Lotus Eaters'. Probably the funniest of the series, this film is fast-paced, furious, with some violent 'old girls', some wonderful set-pieces, and a nice script from Launder and Gilliat.

I first saw this film in the late fifties or early sixties on tv. If I recall correctly there were a few other films in the story of the St. Trinian's Belles. I don't remember the others quite well, but the first one is without question one of the funniest films out of Britain I have ever seen. For that matter, out of anywhere. The sight gags are fast and furious, the dialogue is to die for and almost all the characters are brilliantly drawn and just plain funny. Everyone seems to be enjoying themselves immensely. I highly recommend this movie to anyone who appreciates good old fashioned comedy (not rated R) and I think even children will love it. This is one of those movies (and its sequels) that I would pay almost anything to own. Enjoy it if you ever get a chance to see it.