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THE MOVIE
The Pure Hell of St Trinians
After burning down their school for the umpteenth time, the girls of St Trinians are consigned to the care of a radical psychologist. Almost immediately, the entire sixth form are captured by arabian white slavers and a frantic chase, involving the Ministry of Education, the police and (of course) the girls of St Trinians ensures.
The Great St Trinians Train Robbery
Frankie Howard and his band of well organised criminals pull off the crime of the century, robbing a train of millions and hiding the loot in an old mansion. But the new Minister of Education has decided that St Trinians should be rehoused. And guess where they end up moving....
If you discount the rather desperate 1980 film, these are the last two St Trinians films made. While lacking the remarkable Alistair Sim (you gotta love a fella with that Christian name...) they are still following in the close vein of the previous films.
A good analogy might be some of the "bee swarm" horror movies. All the acting and dialogue is given to the teachers and staff members, the St Trinians girls, apart from the odd throwaway witticism, simply charge from scene to scene, screaming, waving hockey sticks and wreaking havoc.
You'll see any number of well known faces in these two movies, George Cole (Alistair Sim's adopted son and eventual creator of "Arfur" Dailey in Minder) is Flash Harry, the schools groundsman and resident bookie. Joyce Grenfel ("Toast of the Town"), Reg Varney ("On the Buses"), Sid James ("Carry on..." well, almost everything really...) and Frankie Howard all make a showing in various roles playing classic English Ealing type roles.
It would be a brave film maker indeed who tried to produce such a film in these politically correct times. Schoolgirls flashing suspenders and wearing fishnet stockings, a school caretaker grooming sixth formers for his matchmaking business, english actors "blacking up" to play pakistani station masters and veiled jokes about Jamacian families living ten to a house wouldn't even make it past the distributors, let alone the censors.
Still it all has a certain charm to it, if only as a memory of a bygone era when you could say more, and imply more and get away with it....
THE TRANSFER
Video:
No restoration for this one, its scratchy and poppy in paces, but perfectly legible on both films. Black detail is good, there is a little grain throughout both features and aliasing pops up in all the expected places.
The Pure Hell of St Trinians is in Black and White and The Great St Trinians Train Robery is in colour.
Audio:
Encoded as Dolby 2.0, this mono soundtrack comes out of the centre speaker alone, so clear in places you can still hear the original hiss from the magnetic soundtrack....
THE EXTRAS
This is a bare bones disc, there are no extras.
SUMMARY
A bit of harmless fun and an excellent double feature on a single disc.
It's a pity we couldn't have the earlier films, but as long as you remember to stay away from the 1980's remake, the St Trinians films are always excellent examples of classic English comedy. |
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