Release calendarTop 250 moviesMost popular moviesBrowse movies by genreTop box officeShowtimes & ticketsMovie newsIndia movie spotlight
    What's on TV & streamingTop 250 TV showsMost popular TV showsBrowse TV shows by genreTV news
    What to watchLatest trailersIMDb OriginalsIMDb PicksIMDb SpotlightFamily entertainment guideIMDb Podcasts
    OscarsEmmysToronto Int'l Film FestivalHispanic Heritage MonthIMDb Stars to WatchSTARmeter AwardsAwards CentralFestival CentralAll events
    Born todayMost popular celebsCelebrity news
    Help centerContributor zonePolls
For industry professionals
  • Language
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
Watchlist
Sign in
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
Use app
  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews
  • Trivia
IMDbPro

Spare the Rod

  • 1961
  • Not Rated
  • 1h 33m
IMDb RATING
6.6/10
292
YOUR RATING
Spare the Rod (1961)
A new teacher finds himself at a school for troubled kids
Play trailer1:58
1 Video
79 Photos
Drama

It is London in the year 1960 and John Saunders enthusiastically begins his new teaching career at a tough slum-area school. His class are bored pupils in their last term before leaving. Wil... Read allIt is London in the year 1960 and John Saunders enthusiastically begins his new teaching career at a tough slum-area school. His class are bored pupils in their last term before leaving. Will he handle the grave problems that lie ahead?It is London in the year 1960 and John Saunders enthusiastically begins his new teaching career at a tough slum-area school. His class are bored pupils in their last term before leaving. Will he handle the grave problems that lie ahead?

  • Director
    • Leslie Norman
  • Writers
    • John Cresswell
    • Michael Croft
  • Stars
    • Max Bygraves
    • Donald Pleasence
    • Geoffrey Keen
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    6.6/10
    292
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Leslie Norman
    • Writers
      • John Cresswell
      • Michael Croft
    • Stars
      • Max Bygraves
      • Donald Pleasence
      • Geoffrey Keen
    • 14User reviews
    • 1Critic review
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Videos1

    Spare The Rod
    Trailer 1:58
    Spare The Rod

    Photos79

    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    + 73
    View Poster

    Top cast23

    Edit
    Max Bygraves
    • John Saunders
    Donald Pleasence
    Donald Pleasence
    • Mr. Jenkins
    Geoffrey Keen
    Geoffrey Keen
    • Arthur Gregory
    Betty McDowall
    Betty McDowall
    • Ann Collins
    Peter Reynolds
    Peter Reynolds
    • Alec Murray
    Jean Anderson
    Jean Anderson
    • Mrs. Pond
    Eleanor Summerfield
    Eleanor Summerfield
    • Mrs. Harkness
    Mary Merrall
    Mary Merrall
    • Miss Fogg
    Richard O'Sullivan
    Richard O'Sullivan
    • Fred Harkness
    Claire Marshall
    • Margaret
    • (as Diane Marshall)
    Jeremy Bulloch
    Jeremy Bulloch
    • Angell
    June Archer
    • Gladys Weekes
    • (uncredited)
    David Barry
    • Pupil
    • (uncredited)
    Michael Craze
    Michael Craze
    • Thatcher
    • (uncredited)
    Sally Geeson
    • Girl
    • (uncredited)
    Brian Hammond
      Rory MacDermot
      • Mr. Richards
      • (uncredited)
      Julia Nelson
      • Mother
      • (uncredited)
      • Director
        • Leslie Norman
      • Writers
        • John Cresswell
        • Michael Croft
      • All cast & crew
      • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

      User reviews14

      6.6292
      1
      2
      3
      4
      5
      6
      7
      8
      9
      10

      Featured reviews

      6alan-pratt

      I'm going to tell you a story

      Max Bygraves was hugely popular in the UK as a singer and comedian - and subsequently as a game show host - but, it has to be said, his greatest attribute was his affability.

      A number of his singles made the UK charts and his "singalong" albums appealed (particularly) to older listeners not, I think, simply because he was a passably good vocalist, but because his persona was so likable and non-threatening.

      In Spare the Rod, he is cast as a supply teacher working in a tough secondary modern school in the East End of London, hoping to succeed by winning over the pupils rather than punishing them. Along the way, he shows the bad boys that he can mix it with the best whilst refusing to be seduced by the bad girls.

      Donald Pleasance is excellent as the headmaster who has no illusions whatsoever about the youngsters in his charge or the system that he is required to follow and Geoffrey Keen, as the sadistic woodwork teacher, reminds us all of some of the bad, bad times in what used to be described as the best years of our lives! Amongst the kids, look out, especially, for Richard O'Sullivan and Jeremy Bulloch, both of whom excel.

      As for Max, well, sadly he wasn't really much of an actor but, surrounded by professionals as he is, he doesn't do too badly.

      And it is kind of hard to dislike or say bad things about someone who is just so affable.
      8plan99

      A "school desk drama".

      Gritty 1950s/1960s film are often described as "kitchen sink dramas" but here we have a "school desk drama" every bit as depressing as a kitchen sink one. It was difficult who to feel the most sorry for, the teachers or the pupils, but it's probably the pupils as they had more miserable years ahead of them than the much older teachers. Two years after this film Richard O'Sullivan appeared the Burton and Taylor extravaganza "Cleopatra" playing Pharaoh Ptolemy XIII, could there be a bigger contrast in lifestyle between these two characters played by O'Sullivan?
      l_rawjalaurence

      Tough, No-Nonsense Thriller

      Max Bygraves did not enter movies that often. In CHARLIE MOON (1956) he had a role as a young lover with a hit song. SPARE THE ROD was very different. Directed by Leslie Norman, who was a grid workmanlike director, Bygraves plays an orphan boy made good as he takes up the role of a supply teacher at one of London's toughest schools. The temptation might have been to sentimentalise the material, but to his credit Norman suggests that friendships are few and far between in this discipline-dominated institution, presided over by a head teacher (Donald Pleasance) with a fondness fir a big stick and tyrannical rule. His sidekick (Geoffrey Keen) is a teacher of the old school, where the cane does most of the talking. Bygraves enters a knife-edge atmosphere, where learner rebellion is perpetually imminent, and semi-succeeds at his job by listening to the learners and taking their ambitions in mind. Needless to say, he doesn't succeed where others have failed, his over-zealous temper getting the better of him in the end when he attempts to defend a learner against an unwarranted beating from a teacher. At the end it is left undecided whether he will stay or not, but he remains popular by combining strictness with understanding. The film Has its share of educational cinematic cliches, but remains refreshingly
      6malcolmgsw

      IYou Need Hands

      This is actually a fairly decent film ,made at a time when films about schools were very popular,eg St Trinians,Carry On Teacher,Bottoms Up.Maybe because there were so many of us at school at that time.I was at a grammar school but I recognised some of my old teachers in the characters shown here.On the one hand the disciplinarian and on the other the friendly teacher who made lessons interesting.There were many schools just like that shown in the film.Kids could leave at age 14 so some of them were just waiting till they could get their freedom.Bygraves,Keen and Pleasance all give first rate performances in an underrated film which is now available on video.
      6AlsExGal

      British schoolhouse drama...

      ... with Max Bygraves as a new teacher at a tough secondary school populated with the worst of the worst students. He's determined to make a difference, despite the cynicism of principal Donald Pleasence and veteran teacher Geoffrey Keen. Also with Betty McDowell, Peter Reynolds, Richard O'Sullivan, Claire Marshall, and Jeremy Bulloch.

      Singer and comedian Bygraves was a major star at the time, and wanted to try his hand at dramatic acting, so he co-produced this adaptation of a controversial novel. It was meant to shine a light on the deplorable conditions of this sort of school in the UK, one in which the students were virtually given up on, and the faculty just waited for them to quit or age out of the system. It will seem like a lot of oldhat stuff to most modern viewers, as the tough school drama has become a bit of a cliche, but it was rather new material in the UK at the time. The students actually look like kids, with O'Sullivan and Marshall the stand-outs among them.

      More like this

      The Brave Don't Cry
      6.7
      The Brave Don't Cry
      In the Devil's Garden
      5.5
      In the Devil's Garden
      Young and Willing
      6.4
      Young and Willing
      Cash on Demand
      7.5
      Cash on Demand
      Fedora
      6.8
      Fedora
      North West Frontier
      7.1
      North West Frontier
      Pendulum
      6.3
      Pendulum
      A Matter of Choice
      6.3
      A Matter of Choice
      She Played with Fire
      6.8
      She Played with Fire
      The Long Rope
      6.1
      The Long Rope
      A Cry from the Streets
      6.5
      A Cry from the Streets
      The Risk
      6.2
      The Risk

      Related interests

      Mahershala Ali and Alex R. Hibbert in Moonlight (2016)
      Drama

      Storyline

      Edit

      Did you know

      Edit
      • Trivia
        In his auto-biography, Max Bygraves considered this to be the film he was most proud of and was pleased with the praise given to his performance.
      • Goofs
        The opening scene has a lollipop man holding up the traffic to allow children to cross the road however he stops and walks off as some children start to cross the road and the traffic almost runs into them, the lollipop man would not leave his post until all the children had crossed and the cars would not deliberately aim for the kids.
      • Quotes

        [to Mr Gregory who is enraged at being locked overnight in the playground toilet]

        large group of children: [singing] Oh dear what a calamity, old Greg got locked in the lavatory, he was there from Monday till Saturday.

      • Crazy credits
        Opening credits cast list ends with "and the Rest of Class II.
      • Connections
        Featured in Timeshift: Crime and Punishment: A Good Flogging / The Story of Corporal Punishment (2011)
      • Soundtracks
        Blest Are the Pure in Heart
        (uncredited)

        Tune: "Franconia"

        Music by Johann Konig

        Music adapted by W.H. Havergal

        Words by John Keble

      Top picks

      Sign in to rate and Watchlist for personalized recommendations
      Sign in

      Details

      Edit
      • Release date
        • June 18, 1961 (United Kingdom)
      • Country of origin
        • United Kingdom
      • Language
        • English
      • Also known as
        • Versuchung auf der Schulbank
      • Filming locations
        • Clarendon Crescent - now demolished, Maida Vale, Paddington, London, England, UK(opening shot of street, with church in background, as children are crossing)
      • Production company
        • Weyland Films
      • See more company credits at IMDbPro

      Tech specs

      Edit
      • Runtime
        • 1h 33m(93 min)
      • Color
        • Black and White
      • Aspect ratio
        • 1.37 : 1

      Contribute to this page

      Suggest an edit or add missing content
      • Learn more about contributing
      Edit page

      More to explore

      Recently viewed

      Please enable browser cookies to use this feature. Learn more.
      Get the IMDb App
      Sign in for more accessSign in for more access
      Follow IMDb on social
      Get the IMDb App
      For Android and iOS
      Get the IMDb App
      • Help
      • Site Index
      • IMDbPro
      • Box Office Mojo
      • License IMDb Data
      • Press Room
      • Advertising
      • Jobs
      • Conditions of Use
      • Privacy Policy
      • Your Ads Privacy Choices
      IMDb, an Amazon company

      © 1990-2025 by IMDb.com, Inc.