This film is a lighthearted and lovely British romp into comic book musical comedy. It reflects perfectly the attitude and behaviour of English children of the post war 50's. John Mills plays the main character, Mr. Dingle, a history and music teacher at Angel Hill School, whose ambition is for children to love and understand music. This is his best ever acting role; the passion and feeling that he puts into it makes Dingle appear as a normal yet special human being. He is ably supported by Cecil Parker (Mr. Frome)his well meaning but non-understanding headmaster. Jeremy Spenser, Dorothy Bromley and a very young Richard O'Sullivan take leading roles as Dingle's "Angels". The good feeling that I had when I first saw this film, in about 1957, has remained for more than forty years. Thank you Sir John and all concerned. I only wish that my teachers had been like Dingle.
12 Reviews
A great nostalgia piece for Brits in their 50's or 60's
nafydrog10 March 2003
IF you were at school in the 1950's then watch this film if you get the opportunity. It's a lovely look at British school life in that era. The music throughout is great too. John Mills and Cecil Parker do a superb job in their respective roles. Wonderful nostalgia pieces like this should be treasured, and hopefully it will be released on DVD in time.
Still watchable
beresfordjd15 August 2016
I saw this when I was a kid of maybe 10 or 11. It was my favourite film for many years after. It is, of course, very dated now but the performances are still great. Particularly memorable in this fifties curiosity is Richard O'Sullivan whose comic timing, even as a child was terrific - he made the movie for me. Carol Shelley whom I saw in The Odd Couple many years later was a particular crush of mine. John Mills is the central figure in this movie as a teacher obsessed with music who comes up against the authoritarian figure of Cecil Parker, the newly-appointed head of Angel Hill school. It is a snapshot of fifties school life in a typical middle-class organisation and it was quite like the grammar school which I attended (though it was not quite as much fun where I was).
The past is a another country....
ianlouisiana2 March 2018
Warning: Spoilers
Although the more elderly and cynical amongst us might well consider the
present to be another country and the past to be overwhelmingly more attractive.
Set in a mixed Grammar School,"It's great to be young" features one of the great stars of British pictures Mr John Mills as a "modern" teacher"(i.e.one who manages to get through the day without throwing a blackboard rubber or boxing an ear),a relatively new phenomenon in 1956.
A fine trumpeter( dubbed by H.Lyttelton)he very worthily embarks his pupils on what would be called today as a "liberal" education,offering a broader view of what could be considered important.
This acts as a catalyst to the age - old clash between youth and experience
in which he courageously refuses to take sides but agrees to represent the authority's case to the children and provide them with the information they need to make a decision between acquiescence and the mid - fifties version of anarchy.
Nowadays of course Grammar Schools are being treated like embarrassing relatives at a family wedding but whatever the fashion now dictates they were in fact not the elitist semi - Nazi organisations the powers that be would like us to think.
The pupils were generally speaking well - behaved and attentive as shown in the film,but knew their own minds but were capable - in their fashion - of
displaying their own preferences and opinions.
In 1956 I was in a skiffle band that won the Inter - House Music Competition
"By Acclaim " as the rather shocked Adjudicator put it.
On the strength of that I was made Deputy Head of House Music(not "House Music",you understand)
This was a mantle I wore rather lightly as I was utterly musically illiterate,
however,as the children in "It's a great life" demonstrated,it prove that
there was "another way" and for a few days none of the teachers threw a blackboard rubber at me.
A great feel-good fable of school days as we would all like to remember them!
idjg-114 January 2005
Warning: Spoilers
A beautifully well-made film displaying the musical and acting talents of a group of 1950s youngsters fitted round the age-old story of the conflict between John Mills' charismatic music teacher and Cecil Parker's authoritarian new Headteacher who comes to understand there is more to inspiring young people than he had hitherto believed. The set pieces of orchestral playing and the open-air song and dance busking sequence are done with great unixism and ability and a certain naivety that is so special to British films of that era. The storyline is predictable but extremely well acted by the experienced stars and the youngsters, several of whom went on to make their careers in acting. Well worth viewing more than once and enjoying the unpretentious and energetic performance of the youngsters in particular.
Dead singers society
dbdumonteil21 September 2016
It's delightfully old-fashioned,but it's full of Joie De Vivre and it's really much fun to watch!
This grammar school is really too good to be true :all the pupils are very nice,very polite but they have a tendency to favor jazz music over classical ,predating ,in their own modest way ,the sixties'youth ,when England reigned over the whole musical world .
Mr Dingle,wonderfully portrayed by John Mills ,is a teacher with whom we do need education.When the new headmaster arrives ,none of his colleagues supports him ,not even the gym teacher (and however his subject is not considered a serious one either). In the next decade,Dingle would have embraced the Beatles without a moment's hesitation.He's not only a teacher ,he is also the confidant (wait for the "flash"),and ,even without their instruments ,his class can play infectious music -in an extremely well-directed scene.
Imitating the beginning of the French Revolution,the students after a "singing strike" and a conspiracy of silence ,lock themselves in the gym to support their teacher who has been unfairly dismissed (and has become the toast of the local pub).
Plenty of fun with Mr Dingle!
This grammar school is really too good to be true :all the pupils are very nice,very polite but they have a tendency to favor jazz music over classical ,predating ,in their own modest way ,the sixties'youth ,when England reigned over the whole musical world .
Mr Dingle,wonderfully portrayed by John Mills ,is a teacher with whom we do need education.When the new headmaster arrives ,none of his colleagues supports him ,not even the gym teacher (and however his subject is not considered a serious one either). In the next decade,Dingle would have embraced the Beatles without a moment's hesitation.He's not only a teacher ,he is also the confidant (wait for the "flash"),and ,even without their instruments ,his class can play infectious music -in an extremely well-directed scene.
Imitating the beginning of the French Revolution,the students after a "singing strike" and a conspiracy of silence ,lock themselves in the gym to support their teacher who has been unfairly dismissed (and has become the toast of the local pub).
Plenty of fun with Mr Dingle!
Nostalgic musical
Rozinda25 April 2009
I saw this movie when it first came out. I was in my early teens and so just the right age for it and oh it seemed so romantic! I managed to get an ep of some of the music - wish I knew where that ep got to, I've lost it. But I never managed to see the movie again until quite recently on TV - it's been shown a few more times since.
I was never a real jazz enthusiast however so much as I enjoyed all the fun and games at the school with the young musicians and their impressive teacher played by John Mills in a such lively youthful performance that nicely presages his later great dramatic talents, the music itself didn't stay in my memory. Only a year or two later we young people were stunned and delighted by the first rock 'n roll - I heard Rock Around the Clock for the first time in a Hancock's Half Hour, believe it or not, which very amusingly guyed Blackboard Jungle, and I was enthralled - by the music as much as Hancock, ie. Next came Elvis and Heartbreak Hotel, and the music and style and youthful behaviour of It's Great to be Young morphed into energetic rock dancing and Elvis's sexy gyrations.
It's Great to be Young is a splendid period piece now, one of the last gasps if you like of the pre-beat music generation but still enormous fun.
I was never a real jazz enthusiast however so much as I enjoyed all the fun and games at the school with the young musicians and their impressive teacher played by John Mills in a such lively youthful performance that nicely presages his later great dramatic talents, the music itself didn't stay in my memory. Only a year or two later we young people were stunned and delighted by the first rock 'n roll - I heard Rock Around the Clock for the first time in a Hancock's Half Hour, believe it or not, which very amusingly guyed Blackboard Jungle, and I was enthralled - by the music as much as Hancock, ie. Next came Elvis and Heartbreak Hotel, and the music and style and youthful behaviour of It's Great to be Young morphed into energetic rock dancing and Elvis's sexy gyrations.
It's Great to be Young is a splendid period piece now, one of the last gasps if you like of the pre-beat music generation but still enormous fun.
After 55 years, still shining in my mind...
maznar7 September 2008
I saw this film about 55 years ago. And it is still in my mind fresh and clear. It brought me more emotions than any other film by John Ford, Ingmar Bergman o Woody Allen. Some one told me that the incredible, fantastic, young girl (five or six years old, white boots) dancing "claqué" (I think some English speakers name it Tap dance or something like that...), when the film is near its end, was the daughter of Sir John Mills, the well know Sarah Mills, a lot of years before Ryan's Daughter, and so on... Is it true? Some one knows? Just speaking about all that things make me feel 55 years younger... And, by the way, I have a light notion about the musicians. They were the Ray Martin Orchestra, is not it? The same people that in other memorable french film, "A la mi-Aôut"...
Truly delightful
graham-5515 September 2003
I am 40 and first saw this film about 2 years ago. It is full of fun, wit and charm. A true classic of English film making. As usual, Cecil Parker and John Mills are amazing together. Their performance and that of all the supporting cast, is true chemistry.
If you want fun, laughs, music and nostalgia, this is certainly a film to watch. I just wish I could obtain a full version on video or DVD, but unfortunately, it has never been released in the UK.
If you want fun, laughs, music and nostalgia, this is certainly a film to watch. I just wish I could obtain a full version on video or DVD, but unfortunately, it has never been released in the UK.
Pure Nostalgia
f-w-taylor13 January 2007
A brilliant evocation of 1950s Britain; anyone who went to school there, then, will love this. It is lighthearted, with a serious moral message, good performances, continuous action, and skillfully used musical intervals. I remember seeing it as a kid at the local small-town cinema, when it came around the first time; coming across it again, on BBC2 in an obscure afternoon slot, was a real treat. The leads are major stars, especially John Mills and Cecil Parker, and their performances are faultless, but it is the young people who carry the movie and make it so special. The music is great fun, too. Why has this not been reissued on DVD? Apart from its merits, the fact that it is a John Mills vehicle should have been enough to see it out by now, I would have thought. It seems from the other comments on this page that everyone who has seen it likes it, it is just not that easy for new people to see it if there is no DVD in the shops.
A nostalgic take on school days.
rogerblake-281-71881920 November 2012
Warning: Spoilers
Its great to be young if this rose colored view of school days is anything to go by.Well spoken,pleasant children in smart uniforms grace the screen.The sun always seems to be shining and ethnic minorities are non existent,Britain in the mid fifties was a vastly different place.Sex never gets a mention in any shape or form except perhaps when one of the girls is caught knitting baby clothes at the back of the classroom."Its for my married sister Sir" she tells a much relieved Mr Dingle (John Mills) Drugs of course are completely off the radar.
The only fly in the ointment is the new headmaster Mr Frome (Cecil Parker) who does not approve of the school orchestra and who not unreasonably thinks that exam results and scholarships are more important than knocking out a bit of Mozart on a violin.This of course leads to an ongoing conflict with Mr Dingle the music master which escalates when Mr Dingle is discovered playing a honky tonk piano (dubbed by Winifred Atwell) in a local pub to raise money for the school instruments.The final straw comes when Mr Frome hears the orchestra playing jazz.They are of international standard which is not surprising seeing that they are dubbed by Humphrey Lyttleton and his band.
Mr Dingle and Mr Frome have a full and frank discussion which finishes up with Mr Dingle being sacked.
The pupils stage a sit in in the gymnasium,all very polite and genteel.The pupils from all the local schools join the protest in support waving banners and shouting "We want Mr Dingle back".
The headmaster, who I personally have a lot of sympathy for, realises that he may have been a little hasty and goes to see Mr Dingle and explains that the situation is getting out of hand and that he only wants what is best for the school.The last thing he wants is to involve the Police and would Mr Dingle return to school and talk some sense into the children.
Mr Dingle agrees,returns to the school and really reads the riot act to the crestfallen children.He asks them what makes them think he wants to come back.
The headmaster says he hopes Mr Dingle will come back,Mr Dingle agrees to do so,everyone is happy,and we all left the cinema feeling good.
This is a wonderful film all in glorious color.Angel Hill School seems to be a wonderful place with acres of playing fields and given the fine weather one would think the children would rather be out playing cricket or football,oh well no accounting for taste.The cast is uniformly brilliant,Jeremy Spencer as Nicky and Dorothy Bromley as Paulette play the leading youngsters and as a matter of interest a young Richard O'Sullivan plays a spotty little oike called Lawson.He plays a mean tuba.Three years later he played another revolting oike in the comedy "Carry on Teacher".In this one they wanted the headmaster to stay.Later again he played a troubled youngster in the film "Spare the Rod",it was no blackboard jungle but for a British school film it was quite harrowing.
Jeremy Spencer,a highly gifted actor,in the early fifties seen as a British version of James Dean, completely disappeared from our screens in the mid sixties,I was a big fan of his and I hope he is still around,he must be about seventy six by now,I hope all is well with him and that he has led a happy life.
The only fly in the ointment is the new headmaster Mr Frome (Cecil Parker) who does not approve of the school orchestra and who not unreasonably thinks that exam results and scholarships are more important than knocking out a bit of Mozart on a violin.This of course leads to an ongoing conflict with Mr Dingle the music master which escalates when Mr Dingle is discovered playing a honky tonk piano (dubbed by Winifred Atwell) in a local pub to raise money for the school instruments.The final straw comes when Mr Frome hears the orchestra playing jazz.They are of international standard which is not surprising seeing that they are dubbed by Humphrey Lyttleton and his band.
Mr Dingle and Mr Frome have a full and frank discussion which finishes up with Mr Dingle being sacked.
The pupils stage a sit in in the gymnasium,all very polite and genteel.The pupils from all the local schools join the protest in support waving banners and shouting "We want Mr Dingle back".
The headmaster, who I personally have a lot of sympathy for, realises that he may have been a little hasty and goes to see Mr Dingle and explains that the situation is getting out of hand and that he only wants what is best for the school.The last thing he wants is to involve the Police and would Mr Dingle return to school and talk some sense into the children.
Mr Dingle agrees,returns to the school and really reads the riot act to the crestfallen children.He asks them what makes them think he wants to come back.
The headmaster says he hopes Mr Dingle will come back,Mr Dingle agrees to do so,everyone is happy,and we all left the cinema feeling good.
This is a wonderful film all in glorious color.Angel Hill School seems to be a wonderful place with acres of playing fields and given the fine weather one would think the children would rather be out playing cricket or football,oh well no accounting for taste.The cast is uniformly brilliant,Jeremy Spencer as Nicky and Dorothy Bromley as Paulette play the leading youngsters and as a matter of interest a young Richard O'Sullivan plays a spotty little oike called Lawson.He plays a mean tuba.Three years later he played another revolting oike in the comedy "Carry on Teacher".In this one they wanted the headmaster to stay.Later again he played a troubled youngster in the film "Spare the Rod",it was no blackboard jungle but for a British school film it was quite harrowing.
Jeremy Spencer,a highly gifted actor,in the early fifties seen as a British version of James Dean, completely disappeared from our screens in the mid sixties,I was a big fan of his and I hope he is still around,he must be about seventy six by now,I hope all is well with him and that he has led a happy life.
A very British Education.
alexandra-2518 July 2019
It's Great to be Young, (1956) is a narrative of a co-educational school and its pupils excepting their rights. Look further into the sub-text to find it is more about an evolving education system. Moreover it is a comment on the grammar school system. In this era, as is the case nowadays, the grammar school system was designed for more academically able pupils. In other words, a school for the children of the middle class who can avoid paying the education fees of expensive private schools at the expense of the tax payer.
In this film it is notable that the boys are asked questions by the teachers on the subjects of history, Latin and music, whilst overlooking the girls on such questions. Instead girls are encouraged to pursue romance and domestic duties, such as knitting.
Overlapping this dark side of the British education system is the upbeat, energetic, effervescent feel to it, with great performances, good acting and a fine cast of players, including the great Sir John Mills, and a very young Richard O'Sullivan.
It is in many respects a time-piece of traditional school teachers, and education, with corporal punishment and conservative attitudes verses the post-modern jazz, the pre-rock 'n' roll era.
A film that is upbeat, if a tad cheesy, with its dark comments on the British education system.
In this film it is notable that the boys are asked questions by the teachers on the subjects of history, Latin and music, whilst overlooking the girls on such questions. Instead girls are encouraged to pursue romance and domestic duties, such as knitting.
Overlapping this dark side of the British education system is the upbeat, energetic, effervescent feel to it, with great performances, good acting and a fine cast of players, including the great Sir John Mills, and a very young Richard O'Sullivan.
It is in many respects a time-piece of traditional school teachers, and education, with corporal punishment and conservative attitudes verses the post-modern jazz, the pre-rock 'n' roll era.
A film that is upbeat, if a tad cheesy, with its dark comments on the British education system.
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