Tom Brown's Schooldays (1951) User Reviews

Excellent school drama

[chris_gaskin123 · 8/10 · 20 June 2005]

I recently seen Tom Brown's Schooldays for the first time and enjoyed it.

Tom Brown starts Rugby School and it isn't long before he becomes one of the victims of the school bully, Flashman. A year later, he is assigned to look after a new starter, the rather nervous Arthur. He also becomes a victim of Flashman and together with Tom's friend East, they help Flashman to get his comeuppance at the end and he is thrown out and the bullying stops.

Tom Brown's Schooldays gives you an idea on what life was like in school many years ago.

Now to the cast with an excellent performance from John Howard Davies (Oliver Twist) as Tom, Robert Newton (Treasure Island) as the head, Diania Wynyard (On the Night of the Fire), James Hayter, Michael Hordern (Scrooge), Max Bygraves (who doesn't sing in this) and Francis De Wolff (Corriders of Blood). Also, John Charlesworth as East, Glyn Dearman as Arthur and John Forrest as the bully Flashman. Quite a collection of well known British talent there.

Tom Brown's Schooldays is certainly worth checking out if you get the chance. Great stuff.

Rating: 4 stars out of 5.

Solid film, particularly for the acting

[TheLittleSongbird · 7/10 · 19 June 2016]

'Tom Brown's School Days', one of the best depictions of schoolboy life in literature, was previously adapted in 1940. While not the truest to the source material either, that was also a good film, especially for Cedric Hardwicke's performance, and it is hard to say which is the better one out of that and this film.

1951's adaptation is not perfect. The direction is a bit staid and lacklustre, Robert Stevenson in the 1940 film directed with more sympathy, energy and style to me, here the direction is not bad, just that it could have been more.

The story is sometimes a little too episodically told, and while it's well paced on the whole there are occasions where it sags. John Howard Davies is more age appropriate than Jimmy Lydon and has cuteness and charm, but is also a little too delicate and wistful in the title role, which due to being the main focus is more interestingly written, the earlier version focusing more on Arnold.

However, 'Tom Brown's School Days' looks great, beautifully shot and the period setting is suitably atmospheric and quaint. Richard Adinsell's score complements well and has the right amount of jauntiness and whimsy as well as stirring atmosphere. The script is very thought-provoking, with some nice charming, humorous and poignant moments, and much of the story is charming and lively, with Arnold's strictness and progressiveness and Flashman's very vindictive bullying (to the point of being reprehensible, have to agree that one cannot feel sympathy for him as a result) very well-realised.

Particularly notable here in 'Tom Brown's School Days' is the acting. A more restrained than usual Robert Newton gives an authoritative and very sincere performance as strict but saintly Arnold, while John Clarlesworth is appealing as East and John Forrest comes very close to stealing the show making for a viciously snobbish and quite intimidating bully in Flashman. Supporting turns are splendid, though some are brief.

Overall, solid film with the acting being especially noteworthy. 7/10 Bethany Cox

An interesting insight into Englands Public Schools history

[mickjohnston · 8/10 · 12 June 2005]

The film follows the trials and tribulations of a young schoolboy, Tom Brown, who is sent to Rugby public school.

Here he is looked after on arrival by "Scud" East who becomes his friend. East helps the young Brown to make his way through the initiations that each newcomer is expected to undergo. They include Singing in the Hall whilst being pelted with all manner of small objects, and also the tradition of "fagging" - this means running errands and doing small jobs for the 6th Formers.

The school bully , Flashman, although only being a 5th Former forces the younger boys to undertake these "fagging" tasks, failure on their part usually resulting in some kind of punishment. One of these is "Roasting' - the young boy being held against a hearth where an open fire singes their legs.

Tom is forced to undergo this treatment. Shortly afterwards he and East rebel against Flashman and a fight ensues with the two younger boys emerging victorious.This puts an end to the bullying.

All in all a very watchable film. Of course the discipline endured by the boys at Rugby in the 1830's is long gone. Maybe it a loss to modern society, of course we will never know.

Recommended viewing.

Brown On Resolution

[writers_reign · 6/10 · 20 December 2016]

Though this film rates a nine out of ten for Robert Newton, which is the main reason to see it, overall it only deserves the six I have given it. Newton made this more or less back to back with Sergeants Three a ho hum adaptation of the Kipling story and there is no comparison in terms of performance. Although a very underrated actor with a large range he rarely got to portray sympathetic characters on screen and this performance as Dr. Arnold the Reforming headmaster of Rugby School is on a par with his Frank Gibbons in Noel Coward's This Happy Breed - and as Coward wrote the part for himself and played it on stage this is saying something. Apart from Newton's standout performance the film is little more than a 'Saturday Morning' picture but passes the time.

Excellent Adaptation Of The Book.

[Hotwok2013 · 19 June 2017]

"Tom Brown's Schooldays" is a semi-autobiographical novel by Thomas Hughes published in 1856. The author himself attended Rugby school as a boy & it is obvious that the book could only have been written by someone who had experienced life in an English public school firsthand. All English public schools, (& some quite ordinary boys schools), had a "fazing system". New boys were exposed to "initiation ceremonies" involving humiliation & bullying which was supposed to "toughen them up" & make men of them. In reality it was just an excuse for some of the older boys with a nasty nature to mete out punishment & degradation on innocent young boys. Such behaviour still takes place today for new Army recruits. Getting on to the 1951 movie it is a faithful adaptation of the novel. John Howard Davies plays young Tom Brown who when he first arrives at Rugby as an 11 year old is befriended by East (John Charlesworth). East is starting his second year & passes on what he has learned to his new friend & in particular he warns him to beware of Flashman. Flashman, (extremely well played by John Forrest), is a thoroughly obnoxious young man & a bully of the worst possible kind. At one point in the movie Tom Brown is "roasted" by Flashman against a roaring coal fire forcing him to give up a race ticket he has won in a lottery for the Derby favourite. Brown refuses to give it up & has his backside badly burned in what amounts to being tortured. He also refuses to tell the headmaster who did it to him. The headmaster Thomas Arnold is played by one of the great character actors of British cinema Robert Newton who gives, (for him), a fairly restrained performance. The full story is very entertaining & at the movies end Flashman, deservedly, gets his comeuppance by being expelled resulting from another incident involving Tom Brown & his friend East. Worthy of mention, too, is the musical score written for the movie by Richard Adinsell which is excellent. Great Stuff!.

Well staged but lacklustre in parts

[shakercoola · 6/10 · 4 August 2019]

A British drama; A story set in 1834 at Rugby School in England about a boy's efforts to adjust to boarding-school life, and contend with the calculated cruelties of a bully. A new, benevolent schoolmaster Doctor Arnold believes that discipline and reform are necessary, and he puts his faith in the boy as his seed of success. This is a third film version of Thomas Hughes' book. The staging is more authentic, atmospherically shot on location in the old school itself. The story has a slow but steady pace but becomes sketchy at times. John Howard Davies, who plays Tom Brown gives a good performance but appears a little too wistful and believable as a match for his bully. Robert Newton is well cast and impressive as that heroic schoolmaster, but not enough screen time is given to his character and his principles, strength which underpin the story, especially for viewers who read the book. Flashman is given strong presence by John Forrest as the epitome of snobbery, though he is weaker than expected in the scene of his character's physical confrontation.

Schooly-Bully

[Lejink · 7/10 · 17 March 2020]

Old-fashioned British film-making at its best, taking a literary classic, in this case Thomas Hughes's novel of the same name, and simply re-telling the tale in an un-flashy (pardon the pun) manner.

Reportedly faithful to the book source (although I've read the book, it was donkeys years ago, as a boy), the film certainly seems to accurately recreate the cloistered world of private boarding schools of the early 19th Century and all the calumnies which occurred on campus, none worse than the established but nefarious practice of older-form boys requiring the first-year intake to "fag" for them, which basically meant them doing any kind of menial task considered beneath their elders. The point is made in the film that most of the teaching staff were aware of and indeed condoned the practice, probably because they'd been through it themselves and took the view that it was a necessary rite of passage on the path to manhood. Utter nonsense, of course, it was authorised institutional bullying, involving both psychological and physical abuse, usually combined at the same time with anyone trying to change the status quo, such as one of the junior masters or even the humanitarian headmaster Dr Thomas Arnold, denounced as reformers, terrible thing.

Into this battle-, sorry, school-ground comes young Tom Brown, a reserved boy of eleven who despite making friends his own age soon learns his place at the bottom of the school hierarchy and worse, comes into the orbit of the school's most notorious bully, Flashman, who takes an immediate dislike to him and tries to make his life a misery. But young Tom, despite being pushed to his limits, is no quitter and finds a way to get back at his tormentor by learning a new skill over the summer break.

The climax of the film involves Tom and a couple of his chums carrying out a brave and selfless act which sees one of their number face a life or death struggle while the rescued party, in classic blame-avoidance fashion tries to twist the truth for their own ends.

Thankfully truth will out and helped along by a healthy dose of Christian prayer, wrongs are righted although you suspect Dr Arnold might need to apply some root and branch treatment to rid the school of some of the more ingrained practices perpetrated by both senior staff and pupils.

I could have done without the forced religiosity at the end and unsurprisingly some of the child acting is a little stiff and wooden in places but there's no denying this is a rattling good tale with an exemplary young hero who learns fast how to handle himself in an alien environment (I had to smile at the second-year Tom calling his new protege "young 'un"). Young John Howard Davies and Robert Newton are happily reunited from David Lean's "Oliver Twist" three years before, the latter in a markedly different role, while John Forrest shines as the venal, rascally Flashman.

A success at the U.K. box-office with its example of the national stiff upper lip to a land still enduring the stringencies of post-war rationing and all that, it's an entertaining, well-made British drama with an underlying anti-bullying message still highly topical today.

Schooldays: they're your happiest days - or your last!

[Atreyu_II · 10/10 · 18 November 2011]

This intriguing English classic tells the story of Tom Brown who's in a Rugby boarding school. Tom has a friend, East. Tom is a good boy, polite, innocent, friendly. Unfortunately, people like him are easy targets for bullies and Tom is often tormented by Flashman, the intimidating school bully. Among the several abuses he suffers, the most cruel is the "roasting" scene.

Eventually Tom and East learn self-defense techniques and woop that bully's ass and he won't mess with them anymore. However, a new pupil, George Arthur, needs protection because he is Flashman's new victim. Tom and East become responsible for Arthur's safety.

Although simplistic, this movie can still count with some great cinematography. It's fundamentally a good movie with nothing overly negative to criticize about.

John Howard Davies was a prodigy actor. He was fantastic in "Oliver Twist", "The Rocking Horse Winner" and this "Tom Brown's Schooldays". Robert Newton had a turbulent life and movie career because of his alcohol problem, but he was a legend. The other actors, including those in minor roles, were all well selected and portrayed.

This should definitely be on Top 250.

Tom Brown's Schooldays

[CinemaSerf · 7/10 · 1 January 2023]

John Howard Davies - probably most famous for his portrayal of orphan "Oliver Twist" in David Lean's classic - is a little too weedy, for me, as the title character in this adaptation of Thomas Hughes' story about a young boy sent to the prestigious Rugby School in the 1830's where he encounters bullies; brutality and ultimately kindness. Robert Newton turns in a great performance as "Dr. Arnold" who believes that the somewhat cruel educational practices are of the past, and so he and "Tom Brown" try to improve things. This film is not so faithful to the book; but uses the two lead performances, as well as a convincing effort from John Forrest as his nemesis "Flashman", to convey much of it's sentiment. I probably preferred the 1940 version, but there's not much in it.

Very endearing boarding school film

[HotToastyRag · 8/10 · 9 April 2018]

If Tom Brown's Schooldays was the first Robert Newton movie you ever saw, you'd find it unbelievable that he'd ever play a villain. He plays the kindhearted, gentle, soft spoken headmaster of a boys' school, and he repeatedly shares tender moments with students who are bullied, like John Howard Davies and Glyn Dearman. You'd never believe three years earlier, Robert Newton played a fiercely frightening Bill Sykes and tormented John Howard Davies as the title character in Oliver Twist!

John, yet again an endearing hero, is different from his scrawny, disheveled role in Charles Dickens's classic. In this story, he's dressed in beautiful clothes and sent away to a classy boarding school, but even though he's befriended by the young John Charlesworth, an older student John Forrest is a terrible bully. The film follows a couple of years of Tom Brown's Schooldays, and while Robert Newton advocates slow, steady change, the boys try to stand up for themselves.

One pretty cute element of the movie is the familiar cast members. Not only were Bobbie Newton and John Howard Davies reunited from Oliver Twist, but John Charlesworth, Michael Hordern, and Hermione Baddeley were all in A Christmas Carol the same year! I wonder why John Howard Davies wasn't cast as Tiny Tim in that version, as he would have been cuter-not to mention tinier-than the boy who was cast. John Howard Davies only made four movies, and John Charlesworth wasn't exactly propelled into stardom after his eventful year; after seeing their performances in this movie, I can't understand why they weren't the talk of the town.

If you like stories of schoolboys banding together against the bad guys, you'll probably like this story. I'm curious to read the original novel, and I wonder if the story continues after the film's end. I would have loved to see a sequel! The acting in this movie is very good, and even I-whose heart is not often softened by children-got a lump in my throat more than once.

Robert Newton takes on Sir Cedric Hardwicke

[JohnHowardReid · 10/10 · 15 November 2012]

To my surprise, this version is every bit as gripping and fascinating as the 1940 RKO version. Some leading critics in fact actually prefer this movie. You can count the New York Times for one. True, Gordon Parry's direction rarely rises above a very competent level, but Noel Langley's screenplay is, to say the least, brilliant. He has expanded the story slightly to make the Flashman incidents more believable to those unaccustomed to the ways of the British Public School system in the 1850s -- and indeed right up to the 1950's! What's more, the movie is attractively acted, particularly by young John Howard Davies as Tom Brown and charismatic Robert Newton, perfectly cast as Doctor Thomas Arnold. (In fact, Newton told me that he regarded this as by far his best performance. I agree!). What's more, the movie has not only been extremely well produced on a really top budget, but features a fine music score by Richard Addinsell.

An enjoyable film but not true to the book on which it was based

[bbhlthph · 5/10 · 4 August 2004]

On one level this is a rollicking tale of life in an English Public School (other nationals may need to remember to read "Private" for "Public" here.) during the reign of King William IV in the first half of the nineteenth century. It is a well acted and well directed film that most people would find enjoyable to watch, but because of the specialised and unfamiliar scenario it is unlikely to attract audiences from outside those who themselves attended similar schools or those with some form of interest in the history of education.

At a slightly deeper level we must recognise that this film is essentially a remake of a film with a very similar title (Tom Brown's School Days rather than Tom Brown's Schooldays) released ten years earlier. Both films featured Rugby school under the headmastership of the famous educationalist Thomas Arnold - a part played by Sir Cedric Hardwicke in the earlier film and by Robert Newton in this remake - and both were based on the book of the same name written by Thomas Hughes in 1857. It is very hard to discuss one of these films without referring to the other, and since there is no point in duplicating comments on this IMDb database I would recommend anyone reading this page who is sufficiently interested to refer also to my comments on the earlier film. This second version of the story is much more melodramatic than the previous one, but is less in keeping with the original book, and I feel that it probably reflects life as it was in Rugby school at the time less accurately. The climax of the book is Arnold expelling the school bully Flashman for breaching the school moral code. This later film is slightly longer than its predecessor and in it Flashman's behaviour is shown as so reprehensible that the viewer can have no sympathy for him, whereas in the book and the earlier film Flashman is simply a typical bully who is caught out for lying. This is important because it causes the viewer to reflect on the magnitude of the task of creating a school code of conduct strict enough to justify this expulsion. For these reasons, whilst I can watch and enjoy both these films almost equally, I regard the 1940 film as the better, and as more worthy of repeat viewing. For the IMDb database I have also rated it slightly higher than the present one (six out of ten rather than five out of ten).

schooldays

[oliverthompson-99732 · 5/10 · 23 April 2017]

i saw this film thanks to talking pictures , i love the bit when tom arrives back home for his holidays and says to his mother rugby is a wonderful school after he had been hit on his feet with a stick , nearly burnt alive , pelted with food , dropped up and down on the floor and endured endless tedious lessons , i expect when he was in church praying he was asking our good lord to get him out of this hell hole

A right film.

[bossybootts · 29 November 2004]

The film appears to show people who felt they knew what right was and who acted in harmony with that inner conviction , right as the bible describes it to be for the school headmaster reads the parable of seed from the bible and otherwise quotes from it, and appears to be a living example of its precepts in his comportment. His reasonableness is most winsome especially in the scene where he rebukes the younger teacher for lack of respect toward the older teachers, notwithstanding the fact that he agrees with the younger teachers argument, he nonetheless criticises the way he presented it. The compelling invisible force that made people believe that they knew the right they felt was....was ..right and the subsequent belief that good would eventually triumph over bad, evil, naughtiness call it what you like, is undeniable in this film, and if Flashman is symbolic of the axis of evil, then maybe expulsion of them is mankinds only hope. Who will do the expelling? Who decides what is right? Evil? I love films that get you thinking!

Pretty Cool Movie, Tom!

[newnoir · 8 March 2003]

I caught this years ago on a classic movie station and I thought it might be another hopelessly dated "classic" movie. Classic in the sense that just because it's old it's good. When, more often than not, that is obviously not the friggin' case, Jack.

But this was a rousing fun tale of a young British dude and his trials and tribulations at a English boarding school. It's all about the revolution/revenge (good hearted arse kicking revenge, mind you) Tom Brown and the other underclassmen take on the bullying upperclass dudes.

The scene that got me most was the "roasting" scene. It involves the main character, the bad guy, and a turn of the century fireplace, what happens, well...you'll have to see the flick to find out. For an older movie it's a pretty brutal, wincing scene. Hooray for the revolution!

Faint praise

[Phil_Chester · 29 March 2020]

Comparisons with 'Goodbye, Mr Chips', 'The Winslow Boy' and 'The Browning Version' are inevitable, but this film just hasn't quite got the chops to compete. It's fascinating as a pseudo-historical record of public school life in the mid-19th Century, but the story fails to engage fully. However, it's an innocent enough way to pass the time without boring you rigid. Damned with faint praise.