Carry on Teacher (1959)

Director:

Gerald Thomas

Writer:

Norman Hudis (original screenplay)

Release Date:

October 1962 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

Nothing but nothing is funnier and spicier than . . . Carry On Teacher

Plot:

Pupils run amock at Maudin Street School in an attempt to hang on to their headmaster. He has applied for a new job...

Plot Keywords:

School | Headmaster | Pupil | Teacher | Student

Cast

Kenneth Connor	...	Gregory Adams
Charles Hawtrey	...	Michael Bean
Leslie Phillips	...	Alistair Grigg
Joan Sims	...	Sarah Allcock
Kenneth Williams	...	Edwin Milton
Hattie Jacques	...	Grace Short
Rosalind Knight	...	Felicity Wheeler
Cyril Chamberlain	...	Alf Hudson
Ted Ray	...	William 'Wakie' Wakefield, the Headmaster
Richard O'Sullivan	...	Robin Stevens - Saboteur
George Howell	...	Billy Haig - Saboteur
Diana Beevers	...	Penelope 'Penny' Lee - Saboteur
Jacqueline Lewis	...	Pat Gordon - Saboteur
Roy Hines	...	Harry Bird - Saboteur
Carol White	...	Sheila Dale - Saboteur

Runtime:

86 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

UK:U (video rating) | Sweden:Btl | UK:U (cut) | Australia:G

Filming Locations:

Drayton Green Primary School, West Ealing, London, England, UK

Company:

Peter Rogers Productions

Trivia:

During the filming, Charles Hawtrey's mother would often visit the set. While enjoying a cigarette, she accidentally dropped lit ash from the cigarette into her handbag. Joan Sims who was the first to spot the incident yelled, "Charlie Charlie, your mother's bag is on fire!". Charles Hawtrey poured his cup of tea into the bag, snapped it shut, and carried on.

Quotes:

Michael Bean: My beautiful, wrecked, piano!
Edwin Milton: Does that mean you won't be able to finish composing the music for the play?
Michael Bean: Real composers don't require pianos, it is all in the mind.
Edwin Milton: Best place for it.
Michael Bean: Never wanted my music, have you?
Edwin Milton: Well, Tchaikovsky would have done me, if I'd had that music at all. Personally...
Michael Bean: Out with it, what's your objection? Come on, let's have all of it, come on let's have it!
Edwin Milton: Alright it's already my herculian task to coax anything like audability from these children, if, in addition, I have to cope with an orchestra that makes a lullaby sound the climax to 1812.
[...]

Movie Connections:

Featured in Carry on Quizzing (2006) (VG)

Nice, clean fun

The third Carry On film in the series, Teacher still manages to maintain the gentle, clean fun of its predecessors.

Many of the favourites are present here (Williams, Hawtrey, Sims, Jacques, Connor) and are well at ease in the roles they would make their own for the next 20 odd years.

Kenneth Connor is a delight as the bumbling science teacher who finds himself falling for the prudish school's inspector while Leslie Phillips is as smooth as he ever was as the well-oiled child psychologist. Ding dong!

It is interesting to note here that at this early stage, it is Joan Sims who plays the blonde bombshell in the series - a much different role to the screaming, bawdy characters she would play later.

To sum up, Teacher is basically a series of set pieces in which the kids of Maudlin Street School, so desperate for their current headmaster not to leave, set about causing havoc so as to create a bad impression for the school inspectors.

Of course it's all harmless, St. Trinians meets Greyfriars fun and there's a happy ending too. In all, a great addition to the series.