The Great St. Trinian's Train Robbery (1966) User Reviews

Good fun

[neil-476 · 7/10 · 29 August 2010]

The St Trinians films were always broad comedy, and this movie is no exception. The story, cashing in on the recent Great Train Robbery, features Dora Bryan filling Alistair Sim's shoes as headteacher, and the biggest role goes to Frankie Howerd as leader of a gang of thieves trying to recover the proceeds of a robbery which were hidden in the premises now occupied by St Trinians.

Like all little boys, I loved - and love - railways. I can't explain why, it's just that there is something special about things travelling on rails. And the final section of this movie satisfies on that level, with a frenetic and funny sequence of five assorted rail vehicles chasing each other up and down a relatively short section of line.

It was never going to win an Oscar, but it entertains perfectly adequately.

Strong finish to the series

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 6 April 2012]

THE GREAT ST. TRINIAN'S TRAIN ROBBERY was the last of the St. Trinian's quartet (until the unwise attempt at revamping the series in 1980 with WILDCATS) and, to my mind, the most entertaining of the bunch. Whereas the earlier instalments of the 1950s were in black and white, quite slow moving and dated in their humour - nope, I don't find the sight of Alistair Sim in drag particularly funny - this is more like the British comedy films of the '60s and '70s that I know and love.

Headlining the cast is Frankie Howerd - hooray! - as a criminal mastermind who's successfully carried out a train robbery with his crooked gang, including plenty of familiar faces (such as Reg Varney of ON THE BUSES fame). The only problem is that the loot is hidden in an old building now inhabited by the St. Trinian's gang, so retrieving it is going to be tricky.

What follows is a quirky escapade full of the usual hooliganism and outrageous shenanigans as a battle of wits ensues between schoolgirls, teachers and robbers. George Cole is back as Flash Harry, although as usual he has little to do, but Dora Bryan is great value as quirky headmistress Amber Spottiswood. Watch out too for Eric Barker, Michael Ripper and Terry Scott popping up in brief roles.

Things really pick up for the extended climax set on the train tracks. Steam trains and carriages are flying back and forth to great effect and the film reaches farcical levels at this point, ending on a high.

For years I believed that St. Trinian's was a REAL school !!

[churchofsunshine · 6/10 · 23 February 2006]

As youngsters, there are certain things that we all believe in. Father Christmas. The Easter Bunny. The Tooth Fairy. Not me, though. I was different - I believed in St. Trinian's school. I was convinced in fact until I was at least twenty that this school was actually a real place. I'm not a stupid person by any means, so it must have been because I wanted such a place to exist that I spent most of my time in the library browsing phone directories in a fruitless effort to discover exactly where it was. I thought I had it narrowed down to the Home Counties somewhere in Hertfordshire or Bedfordshire, and was quite prepared to try and visit the place in person and leer at all those sixth-form schoolgirls in their gym-slips, stockings and suspenders. The best day of my life was probably when we had a fancy dress day at school and a couple of my female class-mates turned up in a replica uniform, and boy, did they look good! I'm not sure what the teachers thought, because they were only about thirteen I should think, and they definitely were wearing the stockings and suspenders!

These days of course the politically correct brigade would do all they can to prevent young girls dressing like this (even though it was all in good fun and for charity) and these films are often treated in the same way by many reviewers - with scorn and ridicule. The "girls" in the film who are wearing the full "sixth form" stockings and suspenders style uniform are of course well over the age of sixteen and into adulthood, though that doesn't stop some people wondering that maybe films like this encourage paedophilia and turning young girls into sex objects. Maybe there are some dangerous people out there who get a hard-on over uniforms and schoolgirls by watching this film, but I would hope that most, like me, were schoolboys themselves when they first saw this film, and that kind of makes it alright. It's all a bit of harmless fun, and like the "Carry On" films and other more politically incorrect 'stockings and suspenders' stuff where women are shown as sex objects first and characters after (Vicki Michele from "Allo Allo" is a good example), it's true to say they don't make stuff like this any more.

St. Trinian's itself, the brainchild of artist Ronald Searle (as I later discovered!), is seen here for the first time in colour. This, "The Great Train Robbery", is the fourth in the series. A little-known and less-often seen fifth film from 1980 is "The Wildcats of St. Trinian's". As is usual with long-running franchises such as this, the quality does tale of noticeably with each instalment. This film, though not in the same league as the first "Belles of St. Trinians" in 1954, comes across as "Citizen Kane" in comparison to the very weak "Wildcats" entry in 1980. The main advantage this has over the first three is probably the fact that it is in colour.

Unlike most people, I happen to think that St. Trinians rocks. I always have done. I wanted to go to school there. I still do. Words cannot describe how disappointed I was when I found out it didn't really exist. In this day and age of political correctness, it probably never will again - and that's a bit sad. 7/10

Fun as the comedy series gets back on track.

[david-697 · 19 October 2003]

I really wasn't expecting to enjoy this movie. After all, the previous film in this series, 'The Pure Hell Of' was a bit of a disappointment and the question was, six years later, could this movie get the series back on track?

The answer is yes, 'The Great St Trinian's Train Robbery', after a slightly slow start, is a very funny movie, the funniest in the series since 'Blue Murder'. Learning from the mistakes of 'Pure Hell', this movie returns to the school-based comedy that we all know and love.

It has its faults, of course. For example some of the series' most familiar faces are absent (there is no Alistair Sim or Joyce Grenfell, for example), while a sadly ill-looking Eric Barker appears only for a few seconds. But all in all, the influx of new faces (including the likes of Frankie Howerd and Dora Bryan) works to the movie's advantage. Also the rail track capers that conclude the movie are very funny indeed.

The less said about the awful theme song, the better I think, but any movie that contains the line 'Knock them about democratically' deserves to be remembered.

A hugely under-rated British comedy

[RussianPantyHog · 7/10 · 10 January 2005]

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.

Rail capers

[terryhall2 · 7/10 · 11 March 2007]

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.

Not so funny.

[doire · 4/10 · 4 June 2003]

This, a fourth film about the infamous St Trinians school just doestn´t work on a number of levels. Whilst George Cole has been consistently good throughout the series, this movie really needed an actor of Alastair Sim´s magnitutude to make an impression. The few laughs are laboured and it is certainly the weakest in the entire St Trinians canon. Helps pass a Sunday afternoon, I suppose, but offers little in terms of laughs or general entertainment.

Dora Bryan and her unruly girls go for honours!

[didi-5 · 6/10 · 30 May 2007]

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.

So So Last Film In The Original Series

[crossbow0106 · 5/10 · 16 December 2008]

The premise doesn't seem bad, that the school is relocated due to the fires and a group of thieves want to recover money hidden in the place where the new school is. However, it doesn't feel like a St. Trinian's film to me. Its the only one in color and of the characters from the other films only Harry is still there. There is no more Sargeant Gates, which would have helped. The movie goes along at a decent pace and Frankie Howerd is, of course, a good comic actor, but the film is watchable only because its part of the series not because it is such a great stand alone film. See it if you want to complete your watching of the original St. Trinian's films, but otherwise it is not essential viewing.

The girls are back... in colour

[Tweekums · 6/10 · 14 August 2012]

This film opens with the theft of two and a half million pounds from a mail train; after stealing the money the thieves stash the loot at the abandoned Hamingwell Grange with the intention of retrieving it later when the heat has died down. What they didn't count on was that the infamous St. Trinian's school would be moving into the building with the help of corrupt minister Sir Horace. When the thieves return for the loot they are chased off by the girls and their leader, Alphonse, contacts the nameless mastermind behind the robbery and is told to send his daughters to the school so that they can case the joint. They inform there father that there will be a parents days soon during which the building will be empty. The thieves pass themselves off as caterers and start removing the loot but when it starts raining everybody comes indoors and when the girls spot them the chase is on... the thieves load the loot onto a stolen train and in the final scenes of the film they, the girls and the police charge back and forth in trains; of course the villains were doomed from the start!

This entry into the St. St Trinian's franchise has some good laughs and nicely includes references to some topical events; most obviously the Great Train Robbery of 1963. The plot is fairly basic but that is probably a good thing as it means most of the time can be spent on providing laughs. Much of the action concentrates in the thieves, the school staff and civil servants involved in a subplot where they want the school shut and only a fairly limited time is given to the girls themselves; this is a pity as they provide a great sense of anarchic fun; thankfully they take a greater role towards the end; the train chase was a lot of fun. There are some flaws of course; the film is frequently speeded up during the chases; this is funny once or twice but here it is used far too much far worse though is the use of 'browned-up' actor to play the comedy-Pakistani railway worker; surely the creators could have found an actor of Pakistani origin... no doubt it provided laughs in '66 but now it just feels awkward to watch. Despite these flaws the film is a decent way to pass the time.

Updating The Series Hasn't Improved It

[Theo Robertson · 4/10 · 14 January 2005]

In my review of PURE HELL OF ST TRINIANS I mentioned that the comedy is very much dated when watched today . I guess the idea with THE GREAT ST TRINIANS TRAIN ROBBERY was to update it to the 1960s : It references the great train robbery of 1964 ( Interesting to note the connection with THUNDERBALL ) , it mentions " a new Labour government correcting the mismangement of 13 years of Tory misrule " and the movie is shot in colour with a new title tune . However despite these attempts to make it accessible to a cinema audience in 1966 ( Who would have gone to the cinema to watch a black and white movie ? ) this film suffers from the other failings of the series - it's badly plotted with characters and situations coming and going with little focus . like the other movies featuring the pupils from hell there is little screen time given to the eponymous girl pupils who seem to be there as a plot device more than anything else and even in 1966 native audiences would have probably found the parochial humour too British when compared to American financed Brit productions like DR NO , ZULU and ALFIE thereby dating this movie as soon as it came out

One of the best

[matthew119752003 · 10/10 · 29 December 2019]

I love this st trinions so fun you have fun with the train ride at end and you dont want it to end. But like carry on films the best is back door for rubbish and expensive cinema price you hope for good again.

Jolly Hockey Sticks Part 4.

[hitchcockthelegend · 6/10 · 24 March 2016]

The fourth part of the St. Trinian's themed films is the first to be shot in colour, and also the point where someone should have realised that this series had run out of steam. Based on Ronald Searle's demonic schoolgirls, this outing cribs off of the topical Great Train Robbery of the 60s, retains George Cole as a reassuring presence, while adding Dora Bryan and Frankie Howerd for some acting solidification.

It's not a bad film as such, in fact the last quarter, where a whole host of train shenanigans come into play, is great fun, it's just that it feels tired, less risky, like the makers were hedging their bets to get a box office winner (which came to fruition). Fast framing is a bit of a cheat, Howerd is wasted - or sleepwalking through the film? But Bryan is on hand for a bit of quality while the girls are all boisterous and minxy.

Enjoyable enough for those so inclined, even if it's utterly forgettable come the final credits. 6/10

Generally a bit of a waste

[bob the moo · 15 December 2003]

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.

The Great St. Trinian's Train Robbery

[CinemaSerf · 6/10 · 6 November 2022]

Though George Cole stayed put as the wily "Flash Harry", the stylishness and mischief of the Sim/Grenfell films has been replaced by the more crass, innuendo-laden and colour performances from Frankie Howerd and Dora Bryan. Raymond Huntley ("Sir Horace") is the government minister who decides to allocate £85,000 to locate the ailing school and to keep it up to date with the times. Thing is, it's headmistress "Amber" (Bryan) is his bit-on-the-side and she uses the cash to ensure the school becomes little better than a state of the art gambling facility that wouldn't have looked out of place in Atlantic City. Unbeknown to them all though, the old building in which their school is now housed has already been used for a nefarious purpose by some train robbers. Needless to say, they want access to their ill-gotten gains hidden under the floorboards - and when the unruly girls get wise to their plotting, shenanigans galore ensue! Bryan and Howerd both have good comedy coming and a degree of chemistry, but the latter is too domineering as an actor and as character - and as I was never really his biggest fan anyway, I found he rather robbed the thing of any subtlety or hint of comedic sophistication. If you like, "St. Trinians" is now steaming towards "Carry On" territory and leaving behind it the charming boisterousness of previous iterations. It isn't terrible and some of the humour is still quite perky, but these have run their course now, I'd say.

The weakest film in the series

[GusF · 6/10 · 28 January 2015]

The fourth, last and weakest of the original "St. Trinian's" films, it never really takes off. It is an attempt to modernise the series which is not terribly successful. As the title would suggest, it was inspired by the Great Train Robbery in 1963, which is kind of interesting but the idea is not used well. There is some nice light satire of Labour's policies and sex scandals with the Minister for Schools Sir Horace's affair with the new headmistress Amber Spottiswood but there are no belly laughs unlike in the first three films. The train robbery plot is a parody of the Bond films but it falls flat. The attempt to modernise the films mean that it has dated far worse than the first three films, though that wouldn't be a problem if it was a better than average film. The main problem with the storyline is that focuses far too much on the adults and far too little on the students, even less than in "The Pure Hell of St. Trinians".

It has a great cast including Frankie Howerd, George Cole, Richard Wattis (who was absent from the previous film), Raymond Huntley, Dora Bryan, Michael Ripper, George Benson and Colin Gordon. However, Cole is wasted in a smaller role than in the first three films and the absence of Joyce Grenfell and Lloyd Lamble is very noticeable. On the bright side, Michael Ripper - the only actor besides Cole to appear in all four films - has his biggest role in the series and he also has the best line in the film: "That headmistress is his concubine!"