Carry on Teacher

The third of the Carry On series finds the gang up to their necks in strife at Maudlin Street Secondary Modern School. Headmaster William Wakefield (Ted Ray) is a fine and good man who doesn't believe in corporal punishment, this has endeared him to the children of the school. However, he is considering moving on to another school to further his career, but first he has to oversee the arrival of two school inspectors and hope all goes smoothly. Fat chance of that happening, the kids have got wind or Wakefield wanting to leave and start to sabotage everything, with the teachers suffering the brunt of things.

"Teacher" is a warm hearted entry in the series, choosing prat-falls and genial set-pieces for its comedy. The teachers bicker and crack under the strain of the kids pranks and sabotages, while there's also a couple of nice romantic threads bubbling away. Also of note is the not so sly debate on corporal punishment, Wakefield is firmly against it, while robust Maths teacher Grace Short (Hattie Jacques) is the other end of the scale - she's cane mad! There's a feminist angle as well, adding some more depth to Norman Hudis' screenplay.

Ultimately though it's about the laughs, about the chaos, and watching the series regulars go about their way with skill and tongues in cheek. A hit at the box office, Carry On Teacher is quintessentially an early Carry On movie, with wry social observations and a harmless naivety towards the education system, there's not much to dislike here. 8/10

The third Carry On film and arguably the best of the first three, this one is amusing from start and always full of laughs. The jokes are funnier than in the two previous entries, and Leslie Phillips is in particularly good form this time. It is still very silly, and in terms of the plot it is not all that much better than 'Carry On Sergeant' and 'Carry On Nurse', with the practical jokes becoming a bit tiresome towards the end and a story that is very simplistic. Still, the film comes highly recommended from me, as everything seems to fit together rather well, including appropriately used music. It is not a perfect film, but definitely a bit of a delight to watch.

This school-based variation on St Trinian's, with the little horrors (including a very young Richard O'Sullivan) driving their teachers mad, was one of the earliest of the Carry On series and a particularly good one.

Key members of the team come together here - Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey, Joan Sims (always worth watching, hilarious), Hattie Jacques, and Kenneth Connor - alongside other showy actors such as Ted Ray, Leslie Phillips, and Rosalind Knight.

Names are fun as ever (Sims is 'Miss Allcock') and the action is fun, frenetic, and entertaining. I loved the scene with the itching powder that ruins a meeting; as well as the chaos in the staff room - not to mention of course the goings-on with the two horny couples (Phillips and Sims; Connor and Knight). Never a dull moment.

Maudin Street School is hardly a paradise and, when a new school starts looking for a headmaster in his rural hometown, the Maudin headmaster plans to go for the job. However his first problem is a school inspector and child psychologist coming to visit the school and give it a full assessment. On learning this news the pupils decide to get a bit of revenge on the headmaster and the staff by orchestrating a campaign of problems and bad behaviour; but not so direct that the staff will be able to work out who is responsible and easily bring it to a halt.

In the third of the Carry On series, the film moves away from the basic template of Sergeant and Constable and goes for a different plot in a school setting. The basic frame is that the staff are being forced into a series of pratfalls by the scheming pupils while busily trying to impress the inspectors at the same time. Into this mix is thrown the usual element of romance (with Connor getting his third bite at the "shy man desired by forward female" cherry in three films) and the whole thing is rather slight. The humour doesn't have the heavy focus on bums, tits and innuendo that the series developed but this is not to say that it is the height of wit because it is not. Instead the humour is a mix of physical humour and some mild word play and, as such it is actually quite amusing if you are in the mood, although I'd be surprised if you found yourself roaring with laughter at any point.

The cast are OK even if they are mostly just repeating the roles they have had from the first two Carry On films. As I said Connor has the same character and essentially the same subplot but is OK with it. Hawtrey camps it up well while Williams is nicely proper and stuck up. Phillips does his usual stuff reasonably well in a minor role but his partner, Knight, is not that good and is a bit stiff. Sims continues with the "fanciable female" role in this film (although she would become more the "battleaxe wife" as the series went on) and didn't totally convince me. After being a bit flat in Constable, Jacques has a good slice of the comedy while also having her usual matron-style character.

Overall this is an OK entry into the series although those used to the more bawdry entries into the series may be a little disappointed with how slight it is. The plot is unengaging and only acts as a frame for the comedy that is mainly pratfalls with some wit in the dialogue. Few viewers will be roaring with laughter (or even laughing out loud that much) but it is a little bit harmless fun that should distract for a short while.

If there is anything that Carry On Teacher immediately does better than its predecessors, it is that there's a much stronger narrative at play, however skeletal it may be. We're slowly moving away from a simple frame environment in which each character was given their own slice-of-life vignette; while the narrative is still a bit thin, this is a story that progresses. It's a much warmer-hearted entry than the previous two, choosing prat-falls and genial set-pieces for its comedy, the teachers bicker and crack under the strain of the kid's pranks and sabotages. While there are some flat spots on occasion, and a few of the gags are extended to their ultimate detriment, Carry On Teacher is generally hilarious with wry social observations and a harmless naivety towards the education system backed by plenty of great wordplay and slapstick pratfalls, though the film tends to favour the latter more so than the former, mileage may vary.