Hellen I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

Mjeteconer Just perfect...

GurlyIamBeach Instant Favorite.

Enoch Sneed 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".

Spikeopath Humilliated in sport,losing his girl to a cad, and always taken advantage of-Henry Palfrey decides enough is enough and enrols himself at the College Of Lifemanship to learn self improvement strategies.School For Scoundrels is inspired by a trio of parody self-help books written by Stephen Potter called Gamesmanship, Lifemanship & Oneupmanship, with the subsequent result being a deftly charming satire backed up with very knowing comedy. Taking the lead role of Henry Palfrey is Ian Carmichael, tho a star of many funny and successful British comedies, Carmichael is not someone I would normally term as a confident leading man, but here he does well and I think that is probably down to having the ebullient Terry-Thomas to feed off. Terry-Thomas is here in full caddish rapscallion mode as Henry's love rival Raymond Delauney, a devilishly funny character who firmly has us begging Henry to get the better of him come the end. Some delightful laughs to be had here, from the duos tennis matches, to Henry's turning of the tables on an unscrupulous car salesmen. School For Scoundrels is never ever less than a funny movie.However the film is far from perfect, Alistair Sim isn't given that much to do as Henry's mentor, Professor Stephen Potter, and this ultimately feels like a wasted opportunity. The direction is also pretty patchy, which when I delved further is sadly understandable. Robert Hamer was the perfect choice to direct because nestling on his CV is the majestic Kind Hearts And Coronets. But Hamer was fired shortly after filming began after lapsing back into alcoholism {he would die three years later}, so the film was completed by Hal Chester and Cyril Frankel.Frayed edges aside tho, School For Soudrels still holds up well today, and when one witnesses the poor standard of the 2006 remake, this 1960 offering is something of a comedic gem to be cherished forever and always.Hard cheese old boy 8/10

Terrell-4 "Oh, hard cheese, old man!" School for Scoundrels, that cheery, malicious comedy of one-upmanship, was based on Stephen Potter's classic of underhanded winning, Gamesmanship - Or How To Win Without Really Cheating, and its follow-up, Lifemanship. (Potter wrote several others, too.) What is lifemanship? "Well, gentlemen," says the avuncular head of school played by Alastair Sim to a new class, "lifemanship is the science of being one up on your opponents at all times. It's the art of making him feel that somewhere, some how, he's become less that you. He who is not one up, is one down." Getting ready to sign up for the courses is Henry Palfrey (Ian Carmichael), so nice, so pleasant, so helpful that he usually finds himself either ignored, taken advantage of or walked all over. His employees pay him little attention. He meets April Smith (Janette Scott), an attractive young woman, and invites her to dinner, only to see himself turned into the extra man while that bounder, Raymond Delauney (Terry-Thomas) moves in and takes over. He decides to buy a car to impress April and winds up with a moveable piece of smoking, chugging, wheezing metal courtesy of two smarmy used car salesmen, Dunstan (Dennis Price) and Dudley (Peter Jones) Dorchester. And when he agrees to play tennis at the club with Raymond while April watches them...oh, my. Raymond reduces Henry to an impotent lamb in front of April. "Hard cheese," says Raymond sympathetically, every time he maneuvers Henry into looking foolish and losing a point. The worm strikes back, however, when Henry signs up for courses at Mr. Potter's College of Lifemanship. There Henry learns all the little gambits that will put him one up...the cough just as his opponent begins to strike the ball at snooker, hearing a joke about a cripple then standing and limping out of the room, the spilled drink on the dress that leads to a bit of solicitous dress drying after the girl takes it off, the apparently well-meaning delays that drive a competitor to distraction, and on. With Professor S. Potter's help, Henry becomes a one-upsman to be proud of. He learns to make his employees nervous, how to deal with used car salesmen, ways to innocently seduce young women, and how to deal with Raymond Delauney. The person who has to grind his teeth and hear "Oh, hard cheese" is now Delauney. It's almost as satisfying as eating a double portion of sticky toffee pudding. Henry's final tennis match with that cad Delauney is the funniest, most satisfying game of tennis I've seen since Billie Jean King slowly dismembered Bobby Riggs. Is there a lesson for us in all this? Yes, but fortunately it's saved for the very last. And that lesson Henry learns while gazing lovingly at April and telling her he loves her. "We're witnessing the birth of a new gambit," Professor Potter says proudly. No, we're witnessing the moment when love, and the person we love, requires sincerity. All the one-upman gambits are so outrageous and so familiar, and served up with such good-natured manipulation, that all we can do is sit back and smile. School for Scandal is a witty, almost innocent and sweet-natured movie with a fine, dry script, credited to Patricia Moyes and the producer, Hal Chester. In fact it was written by Peter Ustinov and the blacklisted American writer, Frank Tarloff. Robert Hamer, the director of Kind Hearts and Coronets, is credited with directing. When Hamer, an alcoholic, fell off the wagon half way through, however, the producer immediately fired him, brought in another director, Cyril Frank, and the two of them finished the movie unbilled. In addition to the script, of course, what makes this movie so funny and memorable are the performances. Terry-Thomas was never better as the unctuous cad who finally gets his. Ian Carmichael plays another innocent with great ineffectual likability, and then comes through for us. And Alastair Sim as Professor S. Potter is a joy. Watching Professor Potter introduce Henry Palfrey to one-upmanship during their first meeting is to watch one of the cleverest examples of Sim's timing and expression you'd ever hope to see. The only sad spot is seeing Dennis Price in a decidedly secondary role and not looking all that healthy. For many of us, this is a movie to watch while taking notes.

James Hitchcock The English humorist Stephen Potter enjoyed great success in the 1950s with his books "Gamesmanship", which ironically advised sportsmen on "how to win without actually cheating", chiefly by using psychological ploys to unsettle their opponents, and "Lifemanship" and "One-upmanship" which advocated a similar attitude to life in general.It is perhaps surprising that the makers of this film did not use the titles of any of Potter's books for their own title, as at least two of them have passed into the English language. (My Shorter Oxford English Dictionary does contain an entry for "lifemanship", but it is not a word in common use today). The title they actually did use is an obvious reference to Richard Brinsley Sheridan's 18th Century comedy, "The School for Scandal". The central idea is that Potter, not content with merely writing books, has actually opened a College of Lifemanship in Somerset in order to teach his philosophy.The central character of the film is Henry Palfrey, a young man who enrols at the College (a sort of boarding school for adults). Henry is, like many characters played by Ian Carmichael, upper-middle-class and likable but not too bright. (Carmichael was later to become a famous Bertie Wooster on British television). He is ostensibly managing director of his family company, but in reality his job is a mere sinecure, and the firm is actually run by the office manager Gloatbridge, who treats him with patronising condescension. Henry is also patronised by his urbane but caddish acquaintance Raymond Delauney, who thrashes him at tennis and threatens to win over the affections of his pretty girlfriend April. When Henry tries to buy a car to impress April (Delauney drives an expensive Italian sports car), he is cheated by a rascally pair of used-car salesmen who sell him a broken-down wreck for 695 guineas (£729.75- a large amount of money in 1960).Henry therefore enrols in Potter's school where he learns the philosophy and all the tricks of "Lifemanship". The secret, according to Potter, is to be "one-up" on everyone else at all times. ("Just remember, if you're not one-up on the other fellow, then he's one up-on you".) Having completed the course, Henry emerges as brash and self-confident, putting Gloatbridge in his place, persuading the car dealers to buy back the car for more than he originally paid, and avenging himself on Delauney, not only by beating him at tennis but also by making him look a complete idiot in the process. The only questions left to be determined are "Can Henry win the lovely April?" and, more importantly, "Can he do so without becoming as awful and insincere as his rival Delauney?" This story is told in a very loose, episodic manner as a series of jokes and comedy sketches. (The Pythons were later to use a similar technique in some of their films such as "Life of Brian"). Carmichael receives excellent support from a number of other famous British comedy stars, some of them such as John Le Mesurier or Hattie Jacques only playing minor roles. The best supporting performances come from Peter Jones and Dennis Price as the car dealers, Alastair Sim as Potter and Terry-Thomas as Delauney. Like Carmichael, Terry-Thomas tended to specialise in one sort of part, in his case the smooth but lecherous cad. (Interestingly, he was the first choice for the role of Wooster which eventually went to Carmichael. Price played Jeeves in that series).This was, ostensibly, the last film made by Robert Hamer before his tragically early death three years later. I say "ostensibly" because there are reports that Hamer's alcoholism often prevented him from working and many scenes were in fact shot by another director. Hamer was, of course, the director of "Kind Hearts and Coronets", one of the greatest of the famous Ealing comedies. Although "School for Scoundrels" was released in the first year of the new decade, it has the feel of a fifties comedy rather than a sixties one, looking back to the age of Ealing rather than forward to the era of the "Carry Ons"- it is, for example, shot in black-and-white, and the humour lacks the bawdiness which characterises many British comedies from the sixties.The Ealing comedies were, generally, less episodic in format and had a more well-structured plot. Nevertheless, "School for Scoundrels" keeps something of their satirical humour; behind the laughter may have been a concern that the "never-had-it-so-good" Britain of the period was becoming increasingly materialistic and competitive, dominated by the "one-up on the other fellow" ethos of Delauney's real-life counterparts. Although I had never heard of the film until a DVD was recently given away free as part of a newspaper promotion, this must rate as one of the most amusing British comedies of the period. 8/10