Bottoms Up

Sadly neglected, this film proves to be one of the best of British comedies, with a superb script by Muir and Norden,based on their hit TV series "Whacko", that produces endless laughs from fine comic performances from Jimmy Edwards as the rascally headmaster ,from Arthur Howard as the put-upon "Mr Pettigrew" and from the rest of the supporting cast of British character actors and actresses. The battle by the headmaster to wring money out of the finances at Chiselbury School for his own hedonistic ends and at the same time bully,connive and cheat the pupils led by the wily "Wendover" gives rise to some classic comedy situations exploited to the full by the script and rich comic talents of Jimmy Edwards, who was born to play the outrageous headmaster. This film is home-grown British comedy at its best and is better than "The Belles of St.Trinian's" and "The Happiest Days of Your Life", other excellent comedy films based on school-life. Most films made from successful TV comedies have proven to be great disappointments, this film is the exception.

Jimmy Edwards is the headmaster of a third-rate public school -- for Americans, that means a private school. He believes in beating the boys for any offense and none. Eventually, they revolt.

It's a feature-length version of Edwards' TV show, WHACK-O. I've never seen it, but found that his blustery character palled on me over ninety minutes. It's certainly possible that at the shorter length of TV sitcom, it was more palatable. Apparently, the show, which ran eight seasons from 1956 through 1972, for a total of 60 episodes, would have Edwards attempting to steal the boys' pocket money, like a futile Sgt. Bilko.

Other notable players include Martitia Hunt, Sidney Taffer and John Stuart.

This movie has stayed fondly in my memory since I saw it as a kid. The sight of a hoard of school kids destroying a platform that was meant to be used for a mass caning was unforgettable. I'm sure a lot of people would pay to see it again - where is an entrepreneur to convince the studio to release it on video or DVD?

I never saw the movie until now, 2020, and 60 years hasn't aged it one bit. I remember seeing the TV show but, have never seen the movie.

Thanks to political correctness (the laws of which I've yet to see), movies have had to constrain themselves at times. Stupidity is allowed ala American tripe yet, intelligent, comedic movies are torn to shreds because they speak of, everything.

Thankfully modern comedians, male and female, are speaking about everything, and making everything normal and funny once more, something that has been lacking over the past 20 years or so.

This movie is bloody funny, if one looks closely enough. One will see the boys trying to hide smiles while working against a giant peer of his time. Everything works if one has an open mind. Like everything else, if the mind is closed, it sees nothing.

I loved it.

After the war comedy films set in schools were a mainstay of popular cinema going.It all really started with "The Happiest Days Of Your Life" which is undoubtedly top of the class.Then there followed the St Trinians films and then this film.It is a TV spin off from the BBC TV series "Whacko".The TV series was written by Frank Muir and Dennis Norden but they only contributed additional material to this and it shows.\unfortunately it isn't very funny.This despite the loudest attempts by Jimmy Edwards ably assisted by Arthur Howard and Richard Briers and Donald Hewlett.It is very loud but not very funny or original.It is far and away the least funny of the school films.