Humour is funny. Some people laugh loudly at what others don't. This film is paired on a single disc with The Green Man, which for me is the funniest ever produced. Yet SFS sits marginally higher on the IMDb rating list. I don't get it. The substance and script of this offering is insufficient. There's not much of a story and no plot. Ineffective executive loser takes a ridiculous expensive course in how to be overbearing and becomes a winner. Its pace drags.The one-upmanship joke is a one-joke joke. Once you've heard it once or possibly twice, it ceases to be funny, and, in my view, doesn't amuse any more. Here, it goes on and on, interminably. Terry-Thomas is wasted. He can be hilarious, but only in special situations, and relatively small doses. The Hattie Jacques episode is entirely pointless. That tennis match grows frankly tedious, and is suffered twice. A sports scenario, predicated on actual skill, does not exactly lend itself to one-upmanship, which only has purpose in social settings. Ian and Alastair are OK, but in a restricted sort of way. I didn't actually laugh, and really only smiled if I was feeling generous. The Swiftmobile was impressive, but the sales spiel from Dennis and friend, larded with verbosity, went on far too long. Janette was easy on the eye. Insufficient compensation for the general emptiness.

If you feel a bit done in by the patronizing ploys of others, it's possible there's more than just "hard cheese" at work. "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. "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, a well-meaning but inept executive, has met the beautiful April (Janette Scott). No sooner has he taken her on a date than he finds the budding relationship horned in upon by a charming cad named Delauney (Terry-Thomas), who sweeps her away with his command of a French menu and a two-seater coupe in which three's a crowd. 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. One thing I enjoyed thinking as I rewatched this was the notion of a Python remake with Eric Idle in the Palfrey role, John Cleese as Delauney, and Michael Palin as Potter. The comedy might have been sharper and the laughs harder. 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. Sim had a wonderfully mordant tone, smoking his stogie and rolling his eyes as he makes Palfrey sign a check for 250 pounds, which he pontifically declares "part of the treatment."Who was directing this movie, anyway? The credits say Robert Hamer, but he was said to have been fired for his alcoholism. I missed the gentle, twisted vibe he gave to his classic "Kind Hearts And Coronets." The tone here is a trifle disengaged, and leans heavily on the source works, a trio of comic "how-to" manuals authored by Stephen Potter. We don't see much in the way of Palfrey's transformation, just Carmichael's smirk and a wicked gleam in his eye once his one-upping bears fruit.I found this very enjoyable, once it got past Palfrey's early miseries, and I think you will, too. However much Palfrey's tricks or ploys (the distinction may be subtle, but important to Mr. Potter) suggest social commentary in the direction of a capitalist society, the real pleasure of the film is watching him get what he's after, even if this treatment does work out in a rather pat way. Weighing in at just over 90 minutes, there's little time for soul-gazing here.The end is the best part, again pat in a way, but giving some amusing shading to the moral questions under review. Potter finds himself in the presence of a student whose abilities at lifemanship astound even him, and the way he lets the audience in on his unease is quite funny.Terry-Thomas fans will enjoy this especially for the way it gives T-T so much to work with, proving him a fine comic actor in his many spotlight moments. Charm may be a cheap commodity in our world, but "School For Scoundrels" shows where it has its uses.

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). His principal rival is Terry-Thomas with his snazzy Italian sports-car and constant refrain of "Hard cheese!" at tennis (you will want to knock his head off!). Sim acts first as Carmichael's tutor, then assists him in his 'oneupmanship' ploys. 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). We didn't have a close relationship and these moments were few and far between, but I always remember this when I watch "School for Scoundrels".

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.