A lesser St Trinian's film, this does benefit from scatty Dora Bryan as the headmistress; Raymond Huntley as her MP beau; Richard Wattis and co as men from the ministry; and Frankie Howerd, Reg Varney, Arthur Mullard and others as train robbers.If you have seen the other films, you know the formula. The St Trinian's schoolgirls are little terrors who frighten the life out of authority and everyone else. The teachers are boozers, smokers, fighters, and gamblers. Put these together and the plot will sizzle.Not as good as the others, and drags a bit towards the end, but it is a fun film which diverts for at least an hour.

I remember seeing this in the cinema when it first came out. It is a lame version of the St TRINIANS films as were released in the fifties, but it had Frankie Howerd and Dora Bryan, among my favourites. The sad thing is they just don't make these sort of films any more,. True, ribald,funny British films. Just like Will Hay, the Carry On Films and Maragret Rutherford films: no politically correct nonsense, no fears of misinterpretation of paedophilia, no forced representation of different cultural groups, just good old British fun like a good dollop of treacle pudding with custard. People just took more responsibility for stuff back then without complaining about every damn thing!. That's why I like this film - that and of an England we are sadly losing! The film itself does get very boring when they are racing up and down the tracks but it is well done and I can recognise some of the places.

There were 3 films in the St.Trinians series and this, the final of the 3, is always referred to as "the weak entry" - and that's not fair. I actually don't like these silly girls waving tennis rackets & hockey sticks around and "frightening" adults in the process & George Cole (Flash Harry) irritates me in everything he's ever done; yet I still love this film, for everything BUT the ludicrous schoolgirls and Mr Cole. The plot is quite simple; a gang of bank-robbers stash the loot from a train robbery in the cellar of an abandoned house, but before they can collect it the "infamous" girls of St. Trinians are billeted there, having burned down their own building. The robbers pose as caterers on school Open Day and recover a lorry-load of cash but get disturbed by the girls and a chase then ensues involving all manner of weird and wonderful people who all want to get their hands on the reward. There's also a very funny sub-plot involving Richard Wattis as a civil servant investigating the criminal activities of ALL the staff and trying desperately to get the school closed down. Frankie Howerd is hilarious throughout as the gang leader who eventually escapes from the police disguised as a Pakistani railway worker and the scene where he 'clobbers' a Morris Dancer and has to take his place is NOT to be missed. Morris dancing is daft enough as it is but Frankie Howerd's "attempt" will have you roaring with laughter: "Just keep dancing, I'll explain everything later." Arthur Mullard is priceless as the dim-witted "heavy" of the gang, Big Jim, and the running gag involving a railway points lever is also essential viewing. I also liked Reg Varney as the 'serious' member of the gang who gets flustered to the point of homicidal rage by the stupidity of the others. The film is very well directed, beginning slowly and gradually working up to a frantic pace as the chase gets under way. If you can ignore the silly schoolgirls and George - yawn - Cole I'm sure you'll really enjoy this film.

When the Tories are beaten by Labour, public servants rejoice at the potential for public schools to be scrapped (in particular - St Trinians). However the new Minister for Education gives them a massive grant instead - although his Government don't know that he is helping his mistress to set back up the criminal exploits of the school. Trouble starts though, when the school is resituated in a building where train robbers have hidden their loot.In full colour and without the original girls of the series, this film looks to have potential simply on the basis of the talented cast involved. The plot is silly, but when did that ever matter with this stuff? The plot gets a little laboured at the start in the effort to reopen the school and place it in the middle of a train robbers' plan. This doesn't matter too much as it does eventually break away into a more free-flowing chase at the end.However, despite their being plenty for the film to do, it is surprising just how little actually happens, how little impact the film makes and how little any one character has to do. This is most evident in the waste of good comedy actors. The loss of two or three main girls in the cast has reduced the girls to just an unidentifiable mass of unruly girls. This is a problem to start with, but should have been covered by the talented cast. Sadly none really have much to do and much to work with. Frankie Howerd has a few good lines but nowhere near his ability, Cole does his usual stuff but has almost nothing to do. Terry Scott shows his face for about 3 lines, while others like Huntley, Bryan, Varney and so on are really not well used.Overall this film starts slow and poorly however, like a train, slowly builds up a reasonable head of steam for an energetic conclusion. That said, it isn't really very funny and you can't help but watch and spend more time looking at the missed potential.