Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

School for Scoundrels Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 17, 2020

Note: This film is available as part of Alastair Sim's School for Laughter: 4 Classic Comedies.

Chances are if you are like many, maybe even most, American filmgoers, you tend to associate Alastair Sim with one thing and one thing only: his inimitable portrayal of one Ebenezer Scrooge in the 1951 version of Charles Dickens' immortal A Christmas Carol. A few outliers might have vague memories of Sim in such underappreciated gems as Green for Danger (a film where he notably wasn’t even given above the title billing) or even his latter day stint in The Ruling Class, but quite a bit of the rest of Sim’s multi-decade long filmography just doesn’t seem to be that well known by the public at large on this side of the pond. Film Movement has now come to the rescue in that regard and assembled four charming Sim comedies that bridge the years of 1947 to 1960, and which offer a fine assortment of well written, performed and directed outings that have a few linking elements besides Sim himself, including plots sometimes centered around the quest for riches, and occasionally with some chicanery and other shenanigans involved.

Years ago in my misspent youth I got a form letter (way before emails) that struck me as so instantly hilarious that I cut off the section I'm about to quote and made it into "fake letterhead" that I used with friends for years thereafter. This form letter was touting some kind of self help service, which was advertised with a drawing of a kind of straight arrow crew cut type guy raising his hand up toward a huge banner headline proclaiming:

It’s true! You can learn, in just one hour, the secret of how to command and dominate everyone you meet!

Get your own way with others every time by using these clever techniques of applied psychology.

The letter went on to document a course that could be purchased (of course) which would fully delineate those advertised “clever techniques of applied psychology”, but if you wanted a cinematic expression of just those techniques, School for Scoundrels should serve as a perfectly apt example.

Stephen Potter built a rather estimable writing career out of offering fake self help books that parodied the very concepts which are briefly outlined in that form letter above. Starting with The Theory and Practice of Gamesmanship: Or the Art of Winning Games Without Actually Cheating in 1947, Potter wrote a series cheeky tomes that supposedly gave the hapless shlub of the British populace a way to control his perceived “betters”, and Potter’s books in turn gave birth to 1960’s School for Scoundrels, where there is indeed a hapless shlub named Henry Palfrey (Ian Carmichael) who decides to use what might be called “life coaching” in modern parlance offered by a teacher not so coincidentally named Potter (Alastair Sim).

Sim’s character of Potter is frankly kind of an aside here, even though he does drive the plot. The film begins with Henry Palfrey (Ian Carmichael) showing up at Potter’s “Lifemanship” school, which is a kind of decrepit mansion out in what looks like a junkyard, something that may subliminally indicate that Potter isn’t quite the Svengali he claims to be (this particular plot point is never explained or developed, and I found it to be just a little odd). Potter meets with Palfrey and asks why he’s seeking Potter’s aid, which leads to an extended flashback where Palfrey relates how his efforts to woo a pretty woman named April Smith (Janette Scott) have repeatedly been interfered with by an upper crust boor named Raymond Delauney (Terry-Thomas in one of his funniest performances). After the flashback, Potter and other teachers “instruct” Palfrey and a host of other nebbishes in the art of dominance, and then the film documents Palfrey’s repeated triumphs as a “reborn” male.

As Peter Bradshaw gets into in some detail in one of the supplements on this disc, while the basic setup might suggest this is a battle between perceived "winners" and "losers", there's actually a pronounced subtext here about the British class system, where the middle class Palfrey can never quite matriculate successfully into the ranks of the upper class. As Bradshaw also points out, that's a somewhat interesting proposition given the fact that the film shows Palfrey to be a successful business owner (even if his employees don't respect him), but as anyone who has ever spent any time in England can probably understand, there is a "historical" aspect to perceptions of class there that are perhaps fundamental to understanding some of the underlying commentary the film offers.

School for Scoundrels is consistently amusing, and at times laugh out loud funny. Carmichael does a great job portraying a clumsy guy who ultimately becomes a "player", but who realizes Potter's disdained "sincerity" may be a way to actually win over April. Sim is typically crusty and patrician, but it's Terry-Thomas who really steals this film with his simpering, increasingly rage fueled character.

School for Scoundrels Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

School for Scoundrels is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Film Movement Classics, an imprint of Film Movement, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.67:1. As has been the case with several Film Movement releases I've reviewed, the insert booklet offers only a generic "new digital restoration" in terms of providing any technical information on the transfer. All of the releases in this set bear a StudioCanal logo, and I'm assuming this was probably culled from the same master as the UK Blu-ray release put out by StudioCanal which Svet reviewed here several years ago, which which would suggest something that may not be strictly "new". Svet gave close to top marks in his assessment, and I refer you to his review not just for Svet's comments but also for a chance to compare screenshots (I frankly see little if any difference between the two releases). This is generally one of the better looking releases in this set, one that still has some very minor signs of age related wear and tear, along with occasional moments of softness in what look like composites (as when Palfrey first shows up at the "University"). Grain resolves naturally through the presentation, and fine detail levels on things like nattily patterned men's suit jackets all resolve precisely as well. Detail levels are good enough that when Sim approaches the camera at the very end of the film to "break the fourth wall", some viewers may be kind of shocked (as I was) at the sheer amount of hair in Sim's ears, which almost makes him look like he has mini-tumbleweeds spilling out of his head.

School for Scoundrels Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

School for Scoundrels features an LPCM 2.0 mono track that provides more than capable support for the film's dialogue, effects (including some fun effects surrounding several cars that play into the plot proceedings) and the great John Addison's really fun score. There's a bit of brashness in the upper registers here, but no actual distortion, and the entire track has no major signs of age related wear and tear. Unfortunately, this release does not offer optional subtitles for those who might benefit from them.

School for Scoundrels Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• School for Scoundrels Trailer (1080p; 2:35)


• Interview with Peter Bradshaw (1080p; 14:12) offers some background and assessment from the film critic of The Guardian.


• Interview with Graham McCann (1080p; 11:29) features Terry-Thomas' biographer.


• Interview with Chris Potter (1080p; 12:15) is a sweet piece with Stephen Potter's grandson.

Additionally, the insert booklet that comes with Alastair Sim's School for Laughter: 4 Classic Comedies includes an essay about all four films in the set. As with many Film Movement releases, there's the About Film Movement option on the Main Menu which provides some text and a trailer.

School for Scoundrels Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The "main showdown" here is between Ian Carmichael and Terry-Thomas, and both performers are at the top of their respective games in this often bristling, at times slightly manic, enterprise. If Sim is shunted off to the sidelines for some of the proceedings, he still drives everything effortlessly, and Janette Scott makes for a winsome heroine. Technical merits are solid, and the supplementary package very enjoyable. Highly recommended.