L'académie des coquins

When Henry Palfrey meets the lovely young April Smith he thinks he has things good. However a meeting with them and Raymond Delauney sees Palfrey made to look a fool by the caddish Delauney. To counter his wishy washy ways, Palfrey joins the `Lifemanship' school of Mr Potter. Here he learns all the ploys of a cad. Upon completion of the course he sets his sight on Delauney – but can he avoid becoming that which he hates?

Terry Thomas is famous for his lecherous wretch and here he not only plays it to perfection, but also gets out played at his own game. The plot here is in three acts. Firstly the caddish Delauney outplays Palfrey. Second act Palfrey attends the school and finally Palfrey returns to his life a changed man. All three acts play out very well for different reasons, only the end of act 3 drags a little bit but ends well. The gentle comedy of the time runs through it – it is a very English film in its own way. I enjoyed the vast majority of it.

Ian Carmichael appears a weak choice for the lead but his transformation from coward to cad is well played and he was actually very good. Thomas is well cast although this is what he is famous for I suppose. Sim is pretty good but given too little to do and there are some nice little cameos from Hattie Jacques and (even better) John Le Mesurier.

Overall this is very slight but it is also very enjoyable. It isn't hilarious but it is a very enjoyable film with a good sense of wicked humour running through the film.