Customer Reviews

Carry on Teacher [Region 2]

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It's a dumb movie but I love it. I have been insanely mad for these madcap British comedies since I first saw them in high school. A great repertoire of British actors round out the cast..Kenneth Williams, Joan Sims, and Hattie Jacques to mention a few. The bad thing about this film is that it is a poor print and not transferred to cassette like its predecessor "Carry On Nurse." It looks like it was filmed with a camera aimed at a television screen while the movie was on. If you love the "Carry On" series it is probably worth the investment. However, the quality of film is a major disappointment

One of the early films in the series made at the end of the 1950's and shot in black and white. This is a simple comedy, reminiscent of the St.Trinians comedies that were around at the same time. The general plot is of a headmaster who wishes to transfer schools only when a group of school children overhear his plans they do everything they can to ensure he stays on due to his popularity with the pupils. So follows several comic misunderstandings and slapstick mayhem such as the staffs tea being laced with alcohol, superglue on chairs, doors that fall down when opened...predictable yes but good clean old fashioned stuff and is one of the better early entries in the series. This stars most of the familiar faces such as a very young looking Kenneth Williams, Joan Sims, Hattie Jaques, Charles Hawtrey and Kenneth Connor. A good comedy on the whole with a surprising touch of sentimentality at the end of the film. Calmer than a lot of the later entries and it does'nt 100% feel like a Carry On but then it could hardly be anything else!

Carry On Teacher was the third entry into the long-running British comedy film series and was an amusing one at that. The series was well underway having enjoyed International success with its predecessor, Carry On Nurse. This is a gentle, light-hearted comedy, distinctley reminiscent of the St. Trinians series. When a headmaster of a school decides to leave for a new post, the pupils do everything to sabotage his chances because of his firm popularity with them. Two school inspectors arrive, both with diverse ideas on discipline (Rosalind Knight and Leslie Phillips) to assess Mr. Wakefields (the headmaster - played by Ted Ray) progress with the school. And so cue all the predicatble slap stick mayhem such as the staff getting hopelessly drunk after the staffs tea is laced with alcohol, doors falling down when opened, superglue on chairs etc. Predictable yes, but good clean, old-fashioned fun that still manages to raise a smile. Amongst the cast are some of the familiar Carry On faces such as Kenneth Williams, Joan Sims, Charles Hawtrey, Hattie Jaques (playing a ferocious, no-nonsense school mistress) and Kenneth Connor playing his usual bumbling, accident-prone self which became something of his trademark throughout the series. The ending has a surprising twist of sentimentality and although this entry could hardly be anything else but a Carry On film, it still is quite untypical of some of the later entries in the series.

It's such a pleasure that the Carry On Movies are now finally coming out on DVD - and that my video store is stocking them! They truly are classics of British Comedy and it's wonderful to see a very young Hattie Jacques, Joan Sims and the weedy, effete guys Charles Hawtrey and Kenneth Williams being silly without really trying.

Made in 1959 just as the series was getting started, Carry on Teacher lacks much of the bawdiness and naughty irreverence that made the later movies such a riot. But what it lacks in sexual innuendo, it certainly makes up for in silly slapstick and clever one-liners.

The basic plot revolves around the arrival to Maudlin Street School of the education inspectors, Alistair Grigg (Leslie Phillips) and Felicity Wheeler (Rosalind Knight). Ted Ray (William Wakefield) the headmaster of the School has a problem. The students run his school, and the teachers are more or less happy to just keep going, but Ray wants to leave and go teaching at a shiny new modern school being built in the country

The pupils actually like the teachers deep down, and believe that by sabotaging the inspection, they'll make their beloved Headmaster unemployable anywhere else, and he'll be forced to stay. The kids carry out a number of pranks on the unsuspecting teachers - including interrupting their classes, spraying inching powder over their chairs, and spiking their morning cup of tea with alcohol.

Ted is embarrassed by what is going on and the inspection report is thrown into chaos. The teachers are perplexed and frustrated, but all is not lost as the inspector and then, naturally, there are the inevitable love stories arising between the inspectors and two teachers in which more zaniness and mistaken identity ensues.

The plot is thin and at times the action dawdles - you find yourself wanting the characters to just get back to the slapstick. The best parts of the film are when the teachers all get drunk in the tearoom and final climax when the school performance of Romeo and Juliet ends in disaster. All the cast are exceptionally funny but Hattie Jacques truly steals the show this time with her sardonic, officious ways - her teacher's uniform is an absolute riot.

Carry on Teacher harks back to a time of English civility, where the humor was far gentler and the jokes more innocent. The earlier Carry On films are downright quaint and charming with their sense of innocent fun, and they are indeed best enjoyed in order of release, if only to take pleasure in the development - and surprising range - of regular cast members. Mike Leonard April 06.