| Carry on Teacher (1959) | |
|---|---|
 |
Rating: 6.2/10 (2,656 votes) Director: Gerald Thomas Writer: Norman Hudis Stars: Kenneth Williams, Leslie Phillips, Kenneth Connor Runtime: 86 min Rated: N/A Genre: Comedy Released: 01 Oct 1962 |
| Plot: Pupils run amok at Maudlin Street School in an attempt to hang on to their headmaster. He has applied for a new job, but the students like him and don't want to lose him. | |
The third film in the series sees yet another institutional set story, and the same standard formula as before – some form of inspection going on, and some roguish behaviour causing potential problems. This time the setting is Maudlin Street Secondary School, where the acting headmaster, William Wakefield (Ted Ray), has applied for a position at a brand new school nearby. By coincidence the inspector from the Ministry of Education, Miss Wheeler (Rosalind Knight) is checking the standards at Maudlin, alongside child psychologist Alistair Gregg (Leslie Phillips). With his potential future career on the line, Wakefield is keen for things to go smoothly, and tasks his staff with making sure it all runs like clockwork. However, some of the pupils have other plans in mind and set about causing as much chaos during the inspection as they can.
This outing sees the regulars really adopt the personae that they are best known for. Kenneth Williams, still playing an educated role as with the previous two, now adds that veneer of sneery charm to his approach. Kenneth Connor is once more playing the role of the guy who has no clue how to approach matters of love. Hattie Jacques and Joan Sims are proving to be a great double act of stern and bumbling respectively, whilst Charles Hawtrey is still timid, but with a touch of a pride-filled fury at times. The bawdry humour is edging further into the smutty innuendo arena, and with Leslie Phillips in a lead role it couldn’t be in better hands. His suave charmer nature makes for some of the films most amusing moments, and helps keep some of the innuendo the right side of tasteful.
The japes and antics this time are chaotically caused by the pupils of the school, so instead of inept authority figures, we instead have experienced ones pushed to their wits end by the machinations of rogue pupils. The tricks played against the teaching staff include vandalism of furniture, electric shock door handles, alcohol spiking of the staff drinks, and (in one of the film’s most amusing scenes) asking awkward questions of Williams’ English teacher regarding the antics of the 14-year-old Juliet in Shakespeare’s famous play (which the pupils are set to re-enact at the end of the year).
For all the slapstick japery going on, and the various typical romancing that the series throws in, this is the first of the films in the series to genuinely have a solid heart to the whole thing, and it is a hardened soul who doesn’t feel maybe a small lump in the throat, or slight watering of the eye when the films closing moments play out. Showing that the series can be more than just ribaldry and japery, Carry on Teacher is a solid entry in the series.
