BoardChiri Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Brainsbell The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

Robert Joyner The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

bkoganbing In a sense School For Scoundrels was years ahead of its time because today what Alastair Sim was be doing would be called motivational speaking. I'd hate to think what he could be charging today for his self improvement lectures. Ian Carmichael has some self esteem issues, he just thinks he's a loser in the game of life. Most especially a pretty girl he literally ran into played by Janette Scott is being given a first class rush by that cad Terry-Thomas.I think you can figure what happens after Carmichael takes a few courses at Sim's College of Oneupmanship. Just see the two contrasting tennis games that are played by the rivals.Terry-Thomas with that rakish mustache is so perfect when burlesques Snidely Whiplash like villains on the screen. And Norman Vincent Peale might have approved of Sim's take on the power of positive thinking. Not exactly what Peale had in mind, but much more fun.

Adam Peters (64%) A superbly watchable classic British comedy that may dabble in silliness from time to time, but there's very few films from this era that are more fun. The cast is filled with some of the better performers of the time with the always very good Alastair Sim as the essentially the headmaster of this school for cheats, the perfectly cast rival Terry-Thomas, with the ideally good Ian Carmichael in the lead role. Memorable scenes involve the now classic wreck of a car sold by some dodgy dealers, and the very fun "hard cheese old boy" tennis sequences. Anyone fond of classic comedy should without doubt give this a look.

ianlouisiana If you think David Frost or John Cleese "invented" English satire then I implore you to watch "School for Scoundrels",a cornucopia of gentle and wistful irony at the expense of the arrogant,patronising public school / Oxbridge types that messrs Frost and Cleese usually avoided parodying as they themselves were drawn from their ranks. Mr Ian Carmichael(born to play the meek middle-class doormat)is thwarted in his every move by by the manic Mr Terry-Thomas.In despair he enrolls at Stephen Potter's Colllege of One-Upmanship where shrinking violets are turned into tigers,unravelling the subtle coils of the English Class - System by using the Nobs techniques against them. Mr Carmichael uses the subterfuge he is taught to play those who see themselves as his social superiors at their own game.Unlike Basil Fawlty who merely crawls round those who he sees as his social superiors and whose aspirations are to join that class.Those aspirations are what Cleese satirises,Fawlty's wish to "better"himself is what Cleese despises,quite the opposite to Potter who applauds Carmichael's wish to "better" himself and indeed enables it. Later British satire treated its victims with contempt,subjecting them to heavy-handed humiliation,"School for Scoundrels" merely makes them figures of fun,much more subtle and consequently more effective. Each of Carmichael's tormentors is hoisted with his own petard in a most satisfying manner. Miss J.Scott is innocent and sexy in a 1960 - ish way,Mr Price and Mr Jones incomparable.Mr Sim,first in a field of one,hooded eye and sardonic voice,is perfect as Stephen Potter.But I leave the best to last.Mr Terry-Thomas,leering,loathsome yet strangely child - like, irritatingly good at everything he does,a portrait to join those masterpieces from "Private's Progress" and "I'm All Right,Jack" of the cynical upper-class opportunist who gets his come-uppance. Before satire was written by Oxbridge public school boys for Oxbridge public school boys,British comedy writers believed their audience intelligent enough to appreciate gentle irony without stamping on their heads.It was,and it did.

James Hitchcock The English humorist Stephen Potter enjoyed great success in the 1950s with his books "Gamesmanship", which ironically advised sportsmen on "how to win without actually cheating", chiefly by using psychological ploys to unsettle their opponents, and "Lifemanship" and "One-upmanship" which advocated a similar attitude to life in general.It is perhaps surprising that the makers of this film did not use the titles of any of Potter's books for their own title, as at least two of them have passed into the English language. (My Shorter Oxford English Dictionary does contain an entry for "lifemanship", but it is not a word in common use today). The title they actually did use is an obvious reference to Richard Brinsley Sheridan's 18th Century comedy, "The School for Scandal". The central idea is that Potter, not content with merely writing books, has actually opened a College of Lifemanship in Somerset in order to teach his philosophy.The central character of the film is Henry Palfrey, a young man who enrols at the College (a sort of boarding school for adults). Henry is, like many characters played by Ian Carmichael, upper-middle-class and likable but not too bright. (Carmichael was later to become a famous Bertie Wooster on British television). He is ostensibly managing director of his family company, but in reality his job is a mere sinecure, and the firm is actually run by the office manager Gloatbridge, who treats him with patronising condescension. Henry is also patronised by his urbane but caddish acquaintance Raymond Delauney, who thrashes him at tennis and threatens to win over the affections of his pretty girlfriend April. When Henry tries to buy a car to impress April (Delauney drives an expensive Italian sports car), he is cheated by a rascally pair of used-car salesmen who sell him a broken-down wreck for 695 guineas (£729.75- a large amount of money in 1960).Henry therefore enrols in Potter's school where he learns the philosophy and all the tricks of "Lifemanship". The secret, according to Potter, is to be "one-up" on everyone else at all times. ("Just remember, if you're not one-up on the other fellow, then he's one up-on you".) Having completed the course, Henry emerges as brash and self-confident, putting Gloatbridge in his place, persuading the car dealers to buy back the car for more than he originally paid, and avenging himself on Delauney, not only by beating him at tennis but also by making him look a complete idiot in the process. The only questions left to be determined are "Can Henry win the lovely April?" and, more importantly, "Can he do so without becoming as awful and insincere as his rival Delauney?" This story is told in a very loose, episodic manner as a series of jokes and comedy sketches. (The Pythons were later to use a similar technique in some of their films such as "Life of Brian"). Carmichael receives excellent support from a number of other famous British comedy stars, some of them such as John Le Mesurier or Hattie Jacques only playing minor roles. The best supporting performances come from Peter Jones and Dennis Price as the car dealers, Alastair Sim as Potter and Terry-Thomas as Delauney. Like Carmichael, Terry-Thomas tended to specialise in one sort of part, in his case the smooth but lecherous cad. (Interestingly, he was the first choice for the role of Wooster which eventually went to Carmichael. Price played Jeeves in that series).This was, ostensibly, the last film made by Robert Hamer before his tragically early death three years later. I say "ostensibly" because there are reports that Hamer's alcoholism often prevented him from working and many scenes were in fact shot by another director. Hamer was, of course, the director of "Kind Hearts and Coronets", one of the greatest of the famous Ealing comedies. Although "School for Scoundrels" was released in the first year of the new decade, it has the feel of a fifties comedy rather than a sixties one, looking back to the age of Ealing rather than forward to the era of the "Carry Ons"- it is, for example, shot in black-and-white, and the humour lacks the bawdiness which characterises many British comedies from the sixties.The Ealing comedies were, generally, less episodic in format and had a more well-structured plot. Nevertheless, "School for Scoundrels" keeps something of their satirical humour; behind the laughter may have been a concern that the "never-had-it-so-good" Britain of the period was becoming increasingly materialistic and competitive, dominated by the "one-up on the other fellow" ethos of Delauney's real-life counterparts. Although I had never heard of the film until a DVD was recently given away free as part of a newspaper promotion, this must rate as one of the most amusing British comedies of the period. 8/10