The Great St. Trinian's Train Robbery (1966)
Directed by Sidney Gilliat, Frank Launder

Film Review

The St Trinian's saga had all but run its course with The Pure Hell of St Trinian's (1960), the third in a series of films written and directed by Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder, but, like a sick patient that refuses to die, it staggered on, plodding through two more embarrassing episodes, finally expiring in The Wildcats of St Trinian's (1980).  The Great St. Trinian's Train Robbery (1966) may have performed quite well at the British box office but an enduring classic it certainly is not, and it's hard to comprehend how a film that boasts such an abundance of comedic talent (the cast includes such luminries as Frankie Howerd, Dora Bryan, George Cole and Terry Scott) could be so dull and humourless.  Lacking the star alumni of the original St Trinian's films - Alastair Sim and Joyce Grenfell - there isn't much to sustain this flimsy fourth outing for the school from hell.  The writers were obviously far too busy with the plot and satirising  the Labour government's faith in comprehensive education to bother with a piffling detail like gags.  The end result is nothing more than a mechanical heist movie lazily grafted onto the tired girls' school formula.  What few attempts at humour there are are more likely to make you cringe than laugh.  The Pakistani porter asides during an overly protracted and tedious railway chase have to be among the most embarrassing moments in British cinema - oh my goodness, yes indeed.  Crass and wholly unimaginative, The Great St. Trinian's Train Robbery marked a new low for the Gilliat-Launder partnership.

Film Synopsis

A gang of train robbers conceal their ill-gotten gains under the floorboards of an abandoned country house, planning to recover their £2.5 million haul once the hue and cry has died down.  In the meantime, the house is bought by St Trinian's School for Girls with a grant provided by a generous Labour government.  At the request of the gang leader, one of the crooks enrols his two daughters at the school to find the easiest way to recover the loot.  An imminent Parents' Day will provide the perfect distraction - or so it appears.  Unfortunately, the school's headmistress, Amber Spottiswood, her resident turf accountant, Flash Harry, and just about everyone in the school realises what is afoot and, in a frantic attempt to claim the reward money set out to foil the train robbers' scheme...