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I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

(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.

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.

I give 'School for Scoundrels' a 9 out of 10 as punishment for the ending, where good triumphs over lifemanship. Terry-Thomas and Ian Carnmichael are always enjoyable, and of course this is the Golden Age of British (cinema) Comedy; but this is really Alastair Sim's movie, in my view. If you've ever seen a St Trinian's film, or 'A Christmas Carol,' you'll know what I mean. The initial interview between Mr Potter and Henry Palfrey is a small masterpiece, especially where Mr Potter (Sim) asks the oblivious Henry if he wouldn't agree that 'this round goes to me.' AS's (deliberately?) uneven voice, malevolent eyes and feline movements cannot be duplicated. I first saw this movie at the age of nine or ten when it was released, and remember enjoying Terry- Thomas most of all. Watching it again after a half-century I am struck by how astonishingly pretty Janette Scott is.

A classic, (and very, very funny) British comedy that seems to have slipped through the net, (despite having been picked up and remade last year with Billy Bob Thornton). Aficianados, of course, love the film with a passion and for good reason since it represents a high point in the careers of Ian Carmichael, Terry-Thomas and director Robert Hamer, (sadly this was the last thing Hamer did).It's based on the Oneupmanship books of Stephen Potter, in themselves classics of British humour, and here Potter is played by the great and inimitable Alastair Sim, though Sim takes a back seat in this one. Surprisingly, the writers Hal E Chester and Paricia Moyes, who adapted Potter's books, have managed to pull together something of a coherent plot rather than just a series of sketches as initially nerdy Carmichael starts putting Sim's Dark Arts into practice as he goes head-to-head with the dastardly Thomas for the virtue of Janette Scott. Anyone who has ever wondered what the point of Terry-Thomas was need look no further than here. He's a comic fireball and he ignites every scene he's in. Seek this one out.