Please Teacher

Musical romp, with a silly plot about and inheritance and a bust of Napoleon in a girls' school, stars Bobby Howes as an heir who masquerades as a girl's brother to gain entrance to a girls' school. He gets involved with a Chinese warlord and several loony characters. Lots of wordplay, sight gags, and songs highlights this one.

Howes mugs broadly and sings well as he performs some impressive physical comedy (at age 42). He's especially funny when teamed with his co-stars, Vera Pearce, Bertha Belmore, and Wylie Watson, in a series of madcap skits and songs, including "Indian Trio" and "Exercise." The nightshirt scenes is very funny as well.

Others in the cast include Rene Ray as the leading lady, Aubrey Dexter as Reeves, and Lyn Harding as the Chinese warlord.

Fast-paced and very enjoyable.

This is a very minor comedy as Bobby Howes discovers his late aunt left something for him in a bust of Napoleon ... and he's sold the bust, along with the house it's in to a girl's school whose pupils seem to be drawn from a rather leggy chorus. I wouldn't say hilarity ensues. It's one of those plots cobbled together from several comedy skits. However, it's pleasant enough to spend 75 minutes with and the music is all right, even if the lyrics are either very weird or just so 1930s British I can't take any pleasure from them.

Howes was never a major star, but he worked steadily on the stage and occasionally in the movies until his death. He had the title role in the stage version of FINIAN'S RAINBOW: as Finian, not the rainbow.