School for Scoundrels

Plot synopsis:
Henry Palfrey (Ian Carmichael) is a failure in sport and love, and the easy victim of conmen and employees alike. So he enrolls at the "School of Lifemanship" in Yeovil, run by Dr. Potter (Alastair Sim). Late for his appointment, he overhears Potter explaining the principles of lifemanship to the new intake:
Well, gentlemen, lifemanship is the science of being one up on your opponents at all times. It is the art of making him feel that somewhere, somehow he has become less than you – less desirable, less worthy – less blessed.
Palfrey is given an object lesson in this when he has his interview with Potter, who proceeds to win a name-calling game. When Palfrey explains that he is a failure, Potter surmises that a woman is involved. In flashback, Palfrey recounts how he first met April Smith (Janette Scott), knocking parcels from her hands when he rushes to catch a bus. He manages to arrange a dinner date with her.
When Palfrey shows up at work, his loafing employees are unconcerned, despite his being the head of the family firm. They pay much more respect to his senior clerk, Gloatbridge (Edward Chapman). In private, Gloatbridge is patronising toward his erstwhile boss, making the business decisions. Palfrey asks him to make a dinner reservation, and has to fend off Gloatbridge's unwanted restaurant suggestion. That night at the restaurant, the head waiter (John Le Mesurier) cannot find Palfrey's booking at first; he does finally locate it under a slightly different name, but still refuses to seat them, as they are late. When Raymond Delauney (Terry-Thomas), a casual acquaintance of Palfrey's, arrives and sees April, he invites them to his table, where he proceeds to try to seduce April and cast Palfrey in a bad light at every opportunity.
As Delauney has a fancy sports car, Palfrey tries to counter by purchasing an automobile of his own. However, two salesmen (Dennis Price and Peter Jones) sell him a ramshackle 1924 "Swiftmobile". To further his humiliation of his rival, Delauney suggests a "friendly" tennis match. He wins easily. The film then returns to the school. Over the next several weeks, Palfrey proves to be an apt pupil in learning various ploys to gain the upper hand. The next phase of his education involves a field test of his new skills, evaluated by Potter. Palfrey convinces the car salesmen that his car, after some tune-up, is now a valuable and sought-after vehicle. They trade him a sports car and £100 for his Swiftmobile, which promptly breaks down.
After putting Gloatbridge in his place, Palfrey challenges Delauney to a rematch. Using some stratagems, he thoroughly frustrates his foe before they even start playing. Then, with April watching, Palfrey proceeds to win the set 6-0. April becomes disgusted with Delauney's behaviour afterward and drives off with Palfrey. They go back to his place for a drink. Palfrey arranges for April's to spill on her dress. He suggests she take it off to dry and put on his dressing gown. Eventually, they end up in his bedroom through his tricks, but Palfrey cannot bring himself to take advantage of April. Then Delauney barges in, dragging Potter with him. Delauney had found out that Potter was Palfrey's guest at the tennis club and got the story out of him. However, after Delauney informs her, April realises that Palfrey genuinely loves her, and they embrace, much to the disgust of both Delauney and Potter. Potter breaks the "fourth wall" and apologises to the audience for his pupil's behaviour.
The film ends with Delauney getting off the train at Yeovil station and heading in the direction of the school.

Tags: comedy

Review:
Ian Carmichael is, of course excellent, but my all-time hero, Terry-Thomas, is on the toppest of forms delivering the "Look's like a Polish stomach pump" and "Oh I say, smashing cricket stroke" lines with his unshakeable aplomb.
The quintessential role for Terry-Thomas (tho' "Magnificent Men" is a close second).But also fine turns from Alistair Sim, John Le Mesurier, Hugh Paddick, Peter Jones.
Humilliated in sport,losing his girl to a cad, and always taken advantage of-Henry Palfrey decides enough is enough and enrols himself at the College Of Lifemanship to learn self improvement strategies.School For Scoundrels is inspired by a trio of parody self-help books written by Stephen Potter called Gamesmanship, Lifemanship & Oneupmanship, with the subsequent result being a deftly charming satire backed up with very knowing comedy.
Taking the lead role of Henry Palfrey is Ian Carmichael, though a star of many funny and successful British comedies, Carmichael is not someone I would normally term as a confident leading man, but here he does well and I think that is probably down to having the ebullient Terry-Thomas to feed off.Terry-Thomas is here in full caddish rapscallion mode as Henry's love rival Raymond Delauney, a devilishly funny character who firmly has us begging Henry to get the better of him come the end.
School For Scoundrels is never ever less than a funny movie.However the film is far from perfect, Alistair Sim isn't given that much to do as Henry's mentor, Professor Stephen Potter, and this ultimately feels like a wasted opportunity.
But Hamer was fired shortly after filming began after lapsing back into alcoholism (he would die three years later), so the film was completed by Hal Chester and Cyril Frankel.Frayed edges aside though, School For Soudrels still holds up well today, and when one witnesses the poor standard of the 2006 remake, this 1960 offering is something of a comedic gem to be cherished forever and always.Hard cheese old boy 8/10.
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.
Upon completion of the course he sets his sight on Delauney  but can he avoid becoming that which he hates?Terry Thomas is famous for his lecherous wretch and here he not only plays it to perfection, but also gets out played at his own game.
I first saw this film about ten years ago and in that time I must have seen it two hundred times.It stands for everything great in British comedy.It tells the story of a young man who always seems to come a cropper in the lifeman stakes.He joins  classes for one-upmanship and turns into an arrogant idiot.Alastair Sim is at his lugrubious best.Terry-Thomas plays the bounder to a tee with some wonderful lines.If I have one gripe it's the casting of Ian Carmichael in the lead role.Leslie Philips would have been much better But that's a personal choice.Now I'm off to watch it again for the two hundred and first time!.
Having watched it dozens of times over the years it was only the other day when I noticed the following gaff: Early in the film when Palfrey has been stitched up by Delauney at the restaurant he is outside with April when Delauney toots his wolf whistle horn on his 'new Belini 2.6' sports car.
Three of the Fifties best comedy actors here play roles that could have been written with them in mind; the polite and put-upon 'loser' is played marvellously by Ian Carmichael, who specialised in this kind of role; the free-wheeling braggart and womaniser is played to the hilt by the wonderful Terry-Thomas, and the slightly seedy head of the College of Oneupmanship is played with knowing wisdom by Alastair Sim. Even the two minor parts of 'The Winsome Welshmen' - the delightfully dodgy car salesmen who sell our hero the mother-of-all bangers are played with verve by Dennis Price and Peter Jones - "Oh, that's the er..
I have watched this film dozens of times and still manage to discover fresh delights and nuances, let alone locations - the road where Terry-Thomas and Carmichael drive on when going to pick Janette Scott is a stretch of the North Circular that I use daily !.
While it is usually sent to the second division of Alastair Sim films (behind such classics as "The Green Man", "Scrooge", and "Green for Danger") this is one of my favourites.Although the credits say the film is based on 'novels' by Stephen Potter, they are really spoof 'self-help' manuals on how to get ahead in life.
For example, if you are at a party where someone is talking to an admiring group about a country you have never visited (and don't even know) listen quietly until they give an opinion such as: "Left-wing politics are on the rise in Turkmenistan" and say "Yes, but not in the South." This is the 'Canterbury Block', which gives everyone the impression you are more of an expert than the speaker.In this film Ian Carmichael attends Potter's College of Lifemanship to learn how to overcome those who belittle and take advantage of him (and to win the girl of his dreams).
There is a great support cast, too: Dennis Price and Peter Jones as shady car dealers, Hugh Paddick and Hattie Jacques as college tutors, and Edward Chapman as the office manager from hell.Another reason for my affection for this film is that I saw it as a boy with my dad and we both laughed our heads off (especially at Sim's closing speech).
Well by now you will have already been won over by Terry Thomas and the crop of great British comedy actors (Alistair Sim, Dennis Price, Peter Jones and Ian Carmichael).This comment is posted to reinforce your belief that this is one of the best comedies ever made?
A comedy played out by Alastair Sym,helping Ian Carmichael win against the odds to find true love and end up a future winner in life.The "comeuppance" of the shady car dealers is really memorable and a chuckle.
Terry Thomas losing his "Mr Cool" image whilst driving to Carmichael's directions (surely a voice for a Sat nav?!) is a lesson in comedy displayed by two fine actors at the peak of their careers.Not for the cad or dim witted,this film!When feeling a little cross at the winter rain I watch this and add a little fuel to the glowing fire and open a single malt.
This is about winners and losers.Ian Carmichael is Henry Palfrey who wants to woo the delectable April Smith a girl he has bumped into but is made to look foolish by his chum Raymond Delauney (Terry Thomas) who is out to steal her.Palfrey also is not having much luck at his firm and his attempt to buy a sports car goes wrong as well.
He joins the Lifemanship school where the headmaster played by Alistair Sim soon sorts him out in the ways of gamesmanship and oneupmanship.Ian Carmichael plays the weak willed Palfrey really well but soon after his time at school he is transformed as the cad on the make.
The moment he claps eyes on April he turns lecherous and uses his weasel charms to get his way.Of course as the table turn you see Thomas getting frustrated, exasperated and even more bad tempered.Alistair Sim again gives another vintage performance as the wily headmaster of the school teaching Palfrey valuable life lessons.The film has cameos from British character actors of the 1950s, 60s and 70s.
How could a British comedy starring Ian Carmichael, Terry-Thomas and Alastair Sim could be bad ?
In the case of Schools fro Scoundrels, you have the perfect typical old British comedy with wonderful actors.
Ian Carmichael, Terry-Thomas, Alastair Sim and Dennis Price were actors of immense talent and bring so much promise.
Add to that a very interesting concept and that it is directed by Robert Hamer, who directed a personal favourite comedy of mine 'Kind Hearts and Coronets', and one can't help thinking what could possibly go wrong with that amount going for it?Luckily 'School for Scoundrels' doesn't come anywhere close to going wrong and doesn't actually do an awful lot wrong.
It is Terry-Thomas, possibly never better, who makes the most impression playing a cad to hilarious perfection.Also a big star is the script, filled with witty lines and subtle humour that is seldom less than very funny, thanks to the cast's sharp and elegant comic timing.
John Addison's score has the right amount of energy and the film looks great, not many films have had me pining for any kind of car but 'School of Scoundrels' is one of those exceptions.Concluding, very good film and very much a winner if not quite classic.
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.
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.
Ian Carmichael at his most innocent; Terry-Thomas as his most unctuous; Alastair Sim at his most Simish.
"Oh, hard cheese, old man!" School for Scoundrels, that cheery, malicious comedy of one-upmanship, was based on Stephen Potter's classic of underhanded winning, Gamesmanship - Or How To Win Without Really Cheating, and its follow-up, Lifemanship.
"Well, gentlemen," says the avuncular head of school played by Alastair Sim to a new class, "lifemanship is the science of being one up on your opponents at all times.
He who is not one up, is one down." Getting ready to sign up for the courses is Henry Palfrey (Ian Carmichael), so nice, so pleasant, so helpful that he usually finds himself either ignored, taken advantage of or walked all over.
He meets April Smith (Janette Scott), an attractive young woman, and invites her to dinner, only to see himself turned into the extra man while that bounder, Raymond Delauney (Terry-Thomas) moves in and takes over.
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.
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).
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".
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.
Waiters ( John Le Mesurier ) insult him, his own staff - particularly 'Gloatbridge' ( Edward Chapman ) - bully him, an old chum - 'Ray Delauney' ( Terry-Thomas ) humiliates him in a tennis club - and when he tries to impress lovely 'April Smith' ( Janette Scott ) by buying a Swiftmobile ( it closely resembles a reupholstered roller skate!
It is run by 'Mr.S.Potter' ( Alistair Sim )...Some British comedy films look and feel timeless, and this is one of them.
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.
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.
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.
I have never seen the American "School for Scoundrels" and assume it's a remake of this wonderful British film.
To reach, also, the goal of "winning without actually cheating" and most importantly, to make your opponent think that they had lost fairly, thus, to achieve "One-Upmanship".School for Scoundrels, with their continuing theme of "lifemanship", is the 1960 movie based on the books of Stephen Potter, directed by Cyril Frankel, who goes uncredited, as Robert Hamer, an alcoholic, was unreliable for duties, rarely sober and who died some three years later.Failure is not an option, at The College of Lifemanship, with the brilliantly talented Alastair Sim (1900 - 1976), playing Mr. S.
Potter as the shrewd and cunning mentor, and that has the unfortunate Henry Palfrey (Ian Carmichael), turning too for assistance, with his naïve, bumbling and placid nature, will soon have him in the right direction.
Done in a very humorous fashion, with the cast of Terry-Thomas (humour), Alastair Sim (scheming), Ian Carmichael (genuine) and Janette Scott (naivety), and with bit parts from Hattie Jacques (1922  1980), Irene Handl (1901  1987) and John "Dads Army" Le Mesurier (1912  1983), you really cannot go wrong here, entertaining till the end.There is the serious side to School for Scoundrels, and that to participate in such activities is sometime counter productive, and toward the end, maybe, a little backbone can be built up on just basic human sincerity.
Best of the lot is the excellent Terry-Thomas playing the ultimate cad character as he's absolutely hilarious.
"School For Scoundrels" is a comedy of manners in which applicants at the title school learn to shed some manners in order to get ahead – and stay there."He who is not one-up is one-down," explains the school's headmaster, Mr. Potter (Alistair Sims), who finds in Ian Carmichael's Henry Palfrey an apt pupil.
Can Potter's school teach him a lesson in "lifemanship" and help him exact revenge?Less a movie in a story sense, "School For Scoundrels" is a concept film in which the concept involves using ploys to keep one from getting buried by others - by burying them first.
We watch Carmichael's character as he cleverly takes the lessons learned from Potter to use in his life struggle, eventually settling in on a return match against Delauney at the tennis club where he previously suffered his most piercing defeat.Like ianlouisiana points out in an April 2009 review here, this is the sort of film Monty Python could have done a decade later, but with a heavier tread.
But the principals in this film do work just fine.Carmichael stretches a bit from his amiable persona to good effect, while Terry-Thomas steals every scene he's in as his character steals April.
At his wits end Carmichael enrols at Stephen Potter's (Alistair Sim) academy where Gamesmanship is the name of the game and - I trust I'm not giving anything away here - graduates with honours and gives Thomas his comeuppance.
"School for Scoundrels" is 90 minutes and is one of the best comedies I've seen in a long time, one that will leave you feeling good long after and make you keep repeating to yourself, hard cheese, and laughing all day, and with Terry-Thomas in his element and never better, no one loses..
Henry enrolls in The College of Lifesmanship" run by Mr. Potter (Alastair Sim) and learns how to always be "one-up" rather than "one-down," always in control of every situation and the confident winner in every scenario.
Potter, played by Alistair Sim) teaches the easily intimidated Henry Palfrey (Ian Carmichael) how to turn the tables on rotter and cad Raymond Delauney (Terry-Thomas) and win back the lovely April Smith (Janette Scott).The script, by Peter Ustinov, turns the spoof techniques of the book into maguffins driving a coherent narrative.
Potter's "College of Lifemanship" to study "how to win without actually cheating." Once he has learned how to be a "one-upper," Henry returns to the outside world, a new man!