This is the second of the five movies inspired by the Ronald Searle St Trinian's cartoons. The drawings and films alike celebrate the most deliciously diabolical girls' school ever visited upon England's fair countryside - these little harpies make the milk curdle for miles around.
Although this is only the second in the series, the creators of Blue Murder at St Trinian's are already beginning to stray too far from Searle's original vision. Most of the film centres around the school's visit on a Unesco jaunt to Rome, which has been contrived to let a wealthy Italian prince take his pick of the final year girls. There's hardly a teacher in site; the 'normal' life of the school is totally ignored.
Alastair Sim, who played headmistress Millicent Fritton in the first movie, is seen for a few seconds only at the start and close of Blue Murder. The rest of the movie he/she is unseen, languishing in jail for an unspecified offence. Strangely, Miss Fritton has changed her name for this movie from Millicent to Amelia. Flighty thing....
The star of this outing is Joyce Grenfell, playing policewoman Ruby Gates, and still pursuing her superintendent, to whom she has been engaged for 14 years. She is simply wonderful. A true eccentric character actress of immense appeal. But not strong enough by herself, alas, to make this movie really sing.
The male leads are George Cole as the cockney spiv Flash Harry, and toothy Terry Thomas as a suave tourbus operator who has taken on the horrendous job of transporting the St Trinian's girls to Rome.
Then there's Lionel Jeffries as the neurotic diamond-thief Joe Mangan, whose daughter is at the school and who uses it as a handy place to hide away from the heat generated by his latest heist. He's a crucial part of a complicated plot which doesn't really matter much at all, in the end.
It doesn't really matter much at all, because there's no point if it's not funny. And sadly, this just doesn't cut the mustard today. While the first St Trinian's movie is still worthwhile as a nostalgic celebration of past comedy style, one is really quite enough.
Audio is relatively acceptable for most of the movie. The music score is rendered reasonably well, and the school anthem - a new addition to the opening titles - sounds properly horrendous.
But there are times in the movie when the soundtrack takes on an unpleasant sharp screeching edge. This happens only occasionally, but the wild treble excesses when this happens should have been curbed.