Spare the Rod

Spare the Rod
UK release poster
Directed by	Leslie Norman
Produced by	Victor Lyndon
Written by	John Cresswell
Based on	Spare the Rod by Michael Croft
Starring	Max Bygraves Geoffrey Keen Donald Pleasence Richard O'Sullivan
Music by	Laurie Johnson
Cinematography	Paul Beeson
Edited by	Gordon Stone
Distributed by	Bryanston Films
Release date	1961 (1961)
Running time	93 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

Spare the Rod is a 1961 British social drama, directed by Leslie Norman and starring Max Bygraves, Geoffrey Keen, Donald Pleasence and Richard O'Sullivan. The film was based on a novel by Michael Croft and deals with an idealistic schoolteacher coming to a tough area of East London to teach in a secondary modern school at a time when such establishments were largely starved of attention and resources from education authorities and were widely regarded as dumping grounds with sub-par teaching standards, for the containment of non-academically inclined children until they reached the school-leaving age.

Spare the Rod was likened on its release to a British Blackboard Jungle, and later as a precursor in theme to the better-known To Sir, with Love (1967). A contemporary reviewer described the film as "a courageous portrayal of the unhappier side of British education...an honest, honourable piece, which recognises that there are good teachers, discouraged teachers and some that are not fit for the job." This was Bygraves' last feature film before he made the decision to channel his career towards light entertainment rather than acting. O'Sullivan's role as a wayward but promising pupil is a counterpoint to his similar role two years earlier in the comedy Carry On Teacher.

John Saunders (Bygraves), a supply teacher with progressive anti-corporal punishment views, arrives to take up a post at Worrell Street School in a socially deprived area of East London. He is assigned a class of pupils in their last year before leaving school and finds himself in charge of a group of rebellious, badly-behaved teenagers from poor home backgrounds, with no interest in education, who register their defiance of authority by fighting, throwing classroom furniture around, whistling and laughing during bible readings and smoking in class. The school's headmaster Jenkins (Pleasence) is well-meaning but has long become despondent with the seemingly insurmountable challenges posed by his pupils and is resigned to merely serving out his time until retirement. His view that corporal punishment is the only way to maintain even some semblance of order in the classrooms ("You'll never be able to handle them unless you're as tough as they are") is anathema to Saunders, who states his intention to try all other methods of discipline rather than resort to physical violence.