alexanderdavies-99382 This follow-up comedy to "The Belles of St. Trinian's" is not too bad, considering that most sequels aren't usually too good. It is a good thing that Terry Thomas is given "leading man" status as he was an effective lead. Alastair Sim reprised his role of Miss Fritton from the previous film and only has a few minutes of screen time. For those who know the plot, the girls of that notorious school manage to con their way into going on an exchange trip to Italy. Once there, the usual shenanigans result. Lionel Jefferies does well as the convicted father of one of the schoolgirls. George Cole and Joyce Grenfell reprise their respective roles and it's good to see them. The laughs are a bit thin but the cast make this one worth the viewing.

SimonJack This film seems to be a sequel to "The Belles of St. Trinian's." Most of the characters repeat, except that Alastair Sim has barely a cameo appearance. In his place, Terry-Thomas becomes the lead character. He is Captain Romney Carlton-Ricketts, whose dilapidated tour service is selected to take the St. Trianian's girls on a tour of Europe.Besides Thomas, the bulk of the humor comes from George Cole who reprises his role as Flash Harry; and Joyce Grenfall who is, again, an undercover cop. She is police sergeant Ruby Gates. Lionel Jeffries has a nice part in this film as Joe Mangan.The girls break into the ministry of education, falsify their test results and win a contest to represent England at a gathering in Rome. So, the school goes on a semi-ambassador goodwill tour of many Western European countries.The script and plot are just OK and the humor is so-so. Those who like Terry-Thomas and these other performers will likely enjoy this film. But others may not. The film has nothing special to recommend it.

GusF It's not as funny as the first film but it's still hilarious. The virtual absence of Alastair Sim - who appears in two scenes and has five lines - is certainly a blow to the film but it has a great cast including George Cole (who has a much bigger role than in the first film), Terry-Thomas (who, despite being billed first, does not appear until halfway through the film), Lionel Jeffries, Joyce Grenfell, Michael Ripper, Thorley Walters and Richard Wattis. Sadly, however, this was Sim's last involvement with the "St. Trinian's" films.In spite of Sim's limited screen time, the joke of a man in drag is continued as Jeffries' character Joe Mangan - who shares his name with my mother's first cousin, who is not a diamond thief, thankfully - disguises himself as the new headmistress Dame Maud Hackshaw. While this is obviously an old joke, it is done very well. However, it does not work as well as Sim playing Miss Fritton as I found the idea of a male actor playing a female character much more fun than a male character pretending to be a woman. I imagine that the storyline, which concerns Flash Harry trying to marry off one of the sixth formers to a European prince, was meant as a parody of the marriage of Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier of Monaco the previous year, particularly since one of his other potential brides is a Hollywood actress. The first film focused primarily on the fourth formers' pranks, violence, gambling and general mayhem while this one focuses on the sexual promiscuity of the sixth formers. I have to say that I found the former funnier as schoolgirls blowing up labs with nitroglycerin and attempting to decapitate people is far more unusual! Though the latter was quite daring for a family comedy film in 1957.

Tweekums This, the second film in the series, opens with Flash Harry in Rome; he is running the 'St. Trinian's Marriage Bureau' and trying to set a wealthy Italian prince up with one of the school's sixth form; the problem is he can't decide which he likes most so tells Harry to bring them all to Rome. This may present a problem as nobody in their right mind would allow the girls of St. Trinian's to travel abroad! Back in England the school is waiting for the new headmistress to arrive from Australia; in the meantime the school is being run by the army… inevitably it is the army that are taking casualties! After some thinking they come up with a plan; they arrange to 'win' a UNESCO school's competition which has a trip round Europe as its prize. Of course things get complicated further; in this case by a diamond robber who tries to take shelter from the police in the school. He ends up going on the trip in a very unlikely role; along with a policewoman who is masquerading as the interpreter.After the opening 'Belles of St. Trinian's' this was a little bit disappointing but still had a decent number of laughs. The main weakness is that for the most part the story focuses on the adults and their schemes rather than the children; and when it does focus on the children it mainly focuses on the clearly twenty something sixth-formers rather than the feral forth formers who are far funnier thanks to their anarchic behaviour. The cast do a solid job and there are a good range of jokes meaning that it can be enjoyed by people of all ages… it is just a shame that we didn't get to see the La Crosse match… just its aftermath, nor do we see what they are shooting out with a stolen Bren gun! If you enjoyed the first St. Trinian's film I'd certainly recommend watching this one too.