The Pure Hell of St Trinian's

The Pure Hell of St Trinian's
Official poster
Directed by	Frank Launder
Produced by	Frank Launder Sidney Gilliat
Written by	Frank Launder Sidney Gilliat Val Valentine
Starring	Cecil Parker Joyce Grenfell George Cole Eric Barker Thorley Walters Sid James
Music by	Malcolm Arnold
Cinematography	Gerald Gibbs
Edited by	Thelma Connell
Distributed by	British Lion Films
Release date	1960 (1960)
Running time	94 min.
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

The Pure Hell of St Trinian's is a 1960 British comedy film set in the fictional St Trinian's School. Directed by Frank Launder and written by him and Sidney Gilliat, it was the third in a series of five films.

The St. Trinian's Girls burn down the school building and are, subsequently, put on trial at the Old Bailey in London, found guilty, and await sentencing the next day by Judge Slender (Raymond Huntley). This leads to rejoicing at the Ministry of Education, and in Barset, the school's village home, where Sergeant Ruby Gates (Joyce Grenfell) and Superintendent Samuel Kemp-Bird (Lloyd Lamble) can finally plan their marriage, which is predicated on the end of St. Trinian's. However, beautiful Sixth-Form pupil Rosalie Dawn (Julie Alexander) has been flirting with Slender during the trial, where she gives him her telephone numbers, and continues flirting at the sentencing session. Consequently, when Professor of Philosophy Canford (Cecil Parker) of the University of Baghdad suggests that, rather than punishment, the girls need sympathy, and explains that he has funds to buy a new school building, and with the help of noted educator Matilda Harker-Packer (Irene Handl), the girls can be rehabilitated, Judge Slender ignores the guilty verdict and gives him a year to accomplish his aims. This causes dismay at the Ministry, where Butters (Thorley Walters), on the advice of his psychiatrist, does a pastoral dance to calm his nerves. The revival of St. Trinian's also means the end of Gates' and Kemp-Bird's marriage plans. The girls, led by Prof. Canford, new Headmistress Harker-Packer, and the new teaching staff, move into the former Hannington Manor, now the new St. Trinian's school building.

To demonstrate the positive effects the sympathetic educational approach is having on the girls Harker-Packer, acknowledging it will be a disaster, suggests the school present a cultural festival in a month, featuring a fashion show, a painting demonstration, and a dramatic presentation. Ministry officials Culpepper Brown (Eric Barker) and Butters are invited and their superior, Under Secretary Gore Blackwood (Dennis Price), encourages them to go and make detailed notes about the show, which they all believe will be a fiasco, in the hope that, with their report, they can convince the Minister of Education (John Le Mesurier) to shut the school. The show is a fiasco: the fashions displayed by the girls are scandalous; the action-painting demonstration turns into a paint-flinging fight; and the dramatic presentation by Rosalie is Hamlet's soliloquy accompanied by a striptease. Certain the Minister will close the school when they present their report, Culpepper Brown, Butters and Blackwood are crushed when the Minister explains that the fashions are due to be shown in London, a reputable gallery will exhibit the art, and the Stratford theatre will present the girls' Hamlet. All three now use the pastoral dance to calm their nerves.