User Reviews

The third Carry On film and arguably the best of the first three, this one is amusing from start and always full of laughs. The jokes are funnier than in the two previous entries, and Leslie Phillips is in particularly good form this time. It is still very silly, and in terms of the plot it is not all that much better than 'Carry On Sergeant' and 'Carry On Nurse', with the practical jokes becoming a bit tiresome towards the end and a story that is very simplistic. Still, the film comes highly recommended from me, as everything seems to fit together rather well, including appropriately used music. It is not a perfect film, but definitely a bit of a delight to watch.

I saw this film last night and its not bad!!!. The cast are trying and it does show!!!. Kenneth Williams gives a good performance as does Charlie and Kenneth Connor Joan is good as is Hattie and Leslie Philips Rosalind Knight gives a fantastic performance.Larry Dann is good even though he only appears only for a short time.Ted ray gives a great performance as Williams Wakie Wakefield the headmaster.This is definitely one of the best highlights of the first 12 films. This is classic Carry on , there are only a few regulars but they do a cracking job. The trouser ripping scene is hilarious.The gin in the tea is classic comedy.10/10

This one seems to me to be an underrated “Carry On” film – which, again, the series website mini-review puts down by labeling it atypical (the school setting making CARRY ON TEACHER feel more like an unofficial entry in the contemporaneous “St. Trinian’s” franchise, which I’m only vaguely familiar with and has actually just been revived)!

While there are some flat spots on occasion, and a few of the gags are extended to their ultimate detriment, the film is generally hilarious (with a fair share of side-splitting moments); besides, the series’ notorious lewdness – mainly evident in the previous entry, CARRY ON NURSE (1959), during its closing moment – is inescapable here, given that Joan Sims’ physical education teacher has been suggestively named Allcock (which Leslie Philips’ character keeps harping on, having fallen for her at first-sight)!

Several of the actors from NURSE return here: these include unacknowledged series performers such as the afore-mentioned Philips (again, incarnating the playboy type but who also happens to be a child psychologist!), Rosalind Knight (her small role as the studious nurse has been amplified here to the similarly workaholic school auditor – though she’s made to share a hesitant romance with Kenneth Connor, playing the nuclear scientist this time around but relentlessly flubbing his lines in anxiety) and Cyril Chamberlain (the delusional patient of CARRY ON NURSE is now the school janitor).

Kenneth Williams, then, is the English Literature teacher (he’s been assigned to stage “Romeo & Juliet” for the annual prize-day – the students, however, are disappointed that the text has been significantly ‘cleaned-up’!); Charles Hawtrey is the music instructor (who is also to provide accompaniment for the play – the constant bickering between both teachers over whether predominance should be given to Shakespeare’s words or the dramatic emphasis allowed by the score is one of the film’s mainstays, with Williams questioning Hawtrey’s very talent by comparing the latter’s work to a dirge…and, sure enough, that’s what his eventual ‘incidental music’ sounds like on the day of the performance!); corpulent Hattie Jacques is once again the indomitable female type, playing the maths professor.

Ted Ray – whom I’d never heard of, but is supposedly a comedy institution in Britain – is the long-suffering acting headmaster. He’s against punishing students, though he’s almost driven to it after the children turn the school – the address, by the way, is on Maudlin Street! – upside down during the inspectors’ one-week stay…except that this transpires to be a deliberate scheme on their part to quash Ray’s chance at a position in another college, because they don’t want him to leave!! The latter element actually leads to an uncharacteristic, sentimental GOODBYE, MR. CHIPS-style ending.

Among the highlights are Connor’s hand-made rocket going through the roof during science class, Hawtrey falling through the floor of a room, Sims’ judo attack on the persistent Philips, the students’ various pranks on their instructors (such as having the tea spiked with alcohol, spreading itching powder in the teachers’ room, or faking a bomb plant), and the disastrous climactic performance of “Romeo & Juliet”.

P.S. Incidentally, a British comic who excelled in playing schoolmasters was Will Way – and in one of these, THE GOOSE STEPS OUT (1942), Charles Hawtrey himself was featured as a student!

The third Carry On film in the series, Teacher still manages to maintain the gentle, clean fun of its predecessors.

Many of the favourites are present here (Williams, Hawtrey, Sims, Jacques, Connor) and are well at ease in the roles they would make their own for the next 20 odd years.

Kenneth Connor is a delight as the bumbling science teacher who finds himself falling for the prudish school's inspector while Leslie Phillips is as smooth as he ever was as the well-oiled child psychologist. Ding dong!

It is interesting to note here that at this early stage, it is Joan Sims who plays the blonde bombshell in the series - a much different role to the screaming, bawdy characters she would play later.

To sum up, Teacher is basically a series of set pieces in which the kids of Maudlin Street School, so desperate for their current headmaster not to leave, set about causing havoc so as to create a bad impression for the school inspectors.

Of course it's all harmless, St. Trinians meets Greyfriars fun and there's a happy ending too. In all, a great addition to the series.

This particular entry in the Carry On series was a bit more sentimental than most. The British educational system gets a good going over in this film however.

At first glance this looks like the British version of The Blackboard Jungle, but at Maudlin Street school headmaster Ted Ray is actually a beloved figure and the kids don't want to see him leave. When they find out that Leslie Phillips is over from the Ministry of Education to make an evaluation this will make sure that Ray does not get the promotion he's looking for.

Out come the practical jokes played on the entire faculty. When your faculty consists of Carry On regulars like Kenneth Williams, Kenneth Connor, Hattie Jacques, Joan Sims, and Charles Hawtrey you're guaranteed of some great reactions.

Hawtrey looks truly ridiculous in that gown that went out with Mr. Chips.

That itching powder at the teacher conference was classic as was a never to be forgotten version of Romeo&Juliet.

Lots of laughs in this Carry On film.

Still in the Fifties, with the fifties style of situation comedy (this time a school), but it is getting a bit more bawdy, mostly by Leslie Phillips and Joan Sims. It has a good ending though. It is also the film that marked the point where they decided to do a series of films, the first was a one-off, but because of its success they made a 2nd, when that was also successful they decided on the series and this is the first from that decision, still I don't imagine they expected to do 30 when they were making this though, they just went with it! And we are glad they did.

The cast list has shrunk since the last one, some of the usual Carry-on Team come more to the fore, gone are the likes of Shirley Eaton and Terence Longden, and the cameo role actors, in comes Ted Ray and 3 young un's Richard O'Sullivan (of British TV fame), Carol White (who went to Hollywood and was big for 5 mins but died young) and Francesca Annis (if you can spot her), playing 3 of the children. Cyril Chamberlain gets a cameo as the school caretaker.

Lead actor of the carry-on's is Kenneth Connor again, in the early films he was the main one. The others are Charles Hawtrey, Leslie Philips, Joan Sims, Kenneth Williams and Hattie Jacques, Roaslind Knight is back again, she did 2 of the early carry-on's, before going of to do other stuff, she did a few Doctor and St Trinians movies amongst mostly British TV work, she is still going at it, aged 86. Leslie Phillips is also still going, his last role was in 2012, so maybe he has retired at last, he is 96 tomorrow (April 20, 2012). All the rest have passed away unfortunately. Still no Sid James, Bernard Bresslaw, Barbara Windsor and Jim Dale yet, and a few others, they will come later.

This is better than the first 2, it is similar in quality to the first 2 but it has more energy a little funnier and a bit of action. I am still scoring it a 7 like 'Carry On Nurse', but it is more like 7.5.

Can you imagine students that love their headmaster (principal) so much that they try to sabotage his leaving by playing practical jokes when a district(?) team is visiting the school? That's the premise of this, one of the early Carry On films.

I can certainly imagine the reaction of the visiting psychiatrist played by Leslie Phillips (Venus) when he saw Miss Allcock played by Joan Sims (The Last of the Blonde Bombshells). I had the same reaction in Walmart yesterday when some young miss in short shorts and a tight Tee walked by a couple of times.

Full of the usual Carry On stars and some guests, it is typical British humor at it's finest.

The third of the Carry On series finds the gang up to their necks in strife at Maudlin Street Secondary Modern School. Headmaster William Wakefield (Ted Ray) is a fine and good man who doesn't believe in corporal punishment, this has endeared him to the children of the school. However, he is considering moving on to another school to further his career, but first he has to oversee the arrival of two school inspectors and hope all goes smoothly. Fat chance of that happening, the kids have got wind or Wakefield wanting to leave and start to sabotage everything, with the teachers suffering the brunt of things.

"Teacher" is a warm hearted entry in the series, choosing prat-falls and genial set-pieces for its comedy. The teachers bicker and crack under the strain of the kids pranks and sabotages, while there's also a couple of nice romantic threads bubbling away. Also of note is the not so sly debate on corporal punishment, Wakefield is firmly against it, while robust Maths teacher Grace Short (Hattie Jacques) is the other end of the scale - she's cane mad! There's a feminist angle as well, adding some more depth to Norman Hudis' screenplay.

Ultimately though it's about the laughs, about the chaos, and watching the series regulars go about their way with skill and tongues in cheek. A hit at the box office, Carry On Teacher is quintessentially an early Carry On movie, with wry social observations and a harmless naivety towards the education system, there's not much to dislike here. 8/10

The simple story has been well told by others but its enough to say that this movie remembers kids and schools as places quite different from what they are now. I would hate to be a teacher today but way back then it was a different, kinder and nicer world. This is not an hilarious movie but its a charming one. The great Brirtish actors are all there. The stylish Leslie Philips was always the most unlikely actor to be considered a sex symbol but he was always fun to watch. The great Hawtry of course continues to steal every scene he is in. THe others are all there. An extra bonus is Ted Ray who plays the head. This actor was well known to British audiences but quite unknown outside the UK. He gives a beautifully restrained performance and his final scene is very moving. One fine performance in this movie comes from Rosaling Knight as Miss Wheeler. This lovely actress enchanted many a movie. One of those great reliable actresses, we never knew her name but the minute she appeared the screen lit up. The only real jarring note in most Carry on movies was Kenneth Connor. I find his characters annoying and his mumbling was simply irritating back then but now its just woeful. Carry on teaching is not the funniest of films but its full of charm. The itchy powder scene however is great fun and that Romeo and Juliet production is not unlike some school plays we have all endured.This is a sweet innocent movie anda delightful piece of nostagia.

A new school needs a headmaster and temporary headmaster William Wakefield, (ably played by Ted Ray) shows he deserves the job he so passionately wants. The trouble is the children at his current school wilfully sabotage his chances with flour bombs, itching powder and other booby traps in a series of hilarious set- pieces. This is where Carry On films shine. Unfortunately, the producers decided to work in a 'Mr Chips' style sentimental ending. I suppose they painted themselves into a corner because, strictly speaking, the children responsible for the chaos should have been very severely punished. Instead, when the headmaster realises their antisocial behaviour is because they did not want him to leave, he forgives them and stays on as headmaster. After all, what price ambition when you have the transient affection of a few mawkish school children with a funny way of showing that they 'care'? The name of the school is, 'Maudlin Street' so we can take it the scriptwriter wasn't fooled for a moment even if his characters were. Not a nice trick to play on an audience, even if it is very funny right up to the drippy ending. There were a lot of post war films that played the 'duty' trump card at the end. I suppose the pendulum has swung the other way, now. Well, we can but hope.

So, how else could it have been ended? Well, for comparison, look at the first (and possibly best) of the series, "Carry on Sargeant'. Yes, it is sentimental but there's a difference. The retiring training sergeant (William Hartnel) would dearly love to go out on a high with the accolade for the best platoon but his hope is dashed when he is landed with the worst recruits in army history. Again, we have the hilarious set-pieces and again we have a twist at the end but here the soldiers realising the sergeant is retiring and deciding that they will do their damnedest to become the best platoon and give him the send-off he deserves. The conclusion of Carry on Sergeant is genuinely touching. The lads in 'Able Platoon' saw that their sergeant had a dream and helped him to fulfil it. The children of Maudlin Street didn't want to lose their easy going headmaster so they scuppered his chances. A better ending would have been if the children had done a little growing up and said, "Let's help him get his dream job," and shown that they really cared.

As this is only the third film of the series, I feel they were perhaps still getting in to the swing of things somewhat, however, that said, it's still a good laugh and great for a Sunday afternoon. Fantastic character actors and silly, but fun jokes.

This school-based variation on St Trinian's, with the little horrors (including a very young Richard O'Sullivan) driving their teachers mad, was one of the earliest of the Carry On series and a particularly good one.

Key members of the team come together here - Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey, Joan Sims (always worth watching, hilarious), Hattie Jacques, and Kenneth Connor - alongside other showy actors such as Ted Ray, Leslie Phillips, and Rosalind Knight.

Names are fun as ever (Sims is 'Miss Allcock') and the action is fun, frenetic, and entertaining. I loved the scene with the itching powder that ruins a meeting; as well as the chaos in the staff room - not to mention of course the goings-on with the two horny couples (Phillips and Sims; Connor and Knight). Never a dull moment.

Carry on Teacher is one of the early Carry on films, and it's quite funny. There's a lot of regularls here, Hattie Jacques is playing a sort of role she'll have a lot more in the future (a schoolteacher) and instead of Sid James we've got Ted Ray as the headmaster. The best bit of the film is Leslie Philips' character chasing Joan Sims.

7/10: A good film that doesn't exceed the boundaries it sets itself and has great chemistry between the characters

Carry On Teaching is 'old school' in more ways than one: the third film in the classic British comedy was made way back in 1957 and is set in a traditional secondary school, Maudlin Street, where the students run wild, playing a series of practical jokes on their teachers in an attempt to ruin any chance of their headmaster getting a job in a swanky new comprehensive.

This being only their third movie together, the gang still seem to be learning themselves. Their intention appears to be to emulate the success of the St. Trinian's movies, but the laughs just aren't there, with much of the zany humour and slapstick falling flat, the Carry On formula yet to be perfected (as such, certain scenes are quite embarrassing to watch, in particular, an awkward moment when the teachers get drunk and the dreadful itching powder scene).

That said, the cast are as likable as ever (with Joan Sims shining as Leslie Phillips' love interest), the general atmosphere is one of good-natured knockabout fun, and the ending is the epitome of 'feelgood' and should leave viewers feeling positive about the movie as a whole despite the lack of genuinely good laughs.

N.B. Look out for a young Richard O'Sullivan of Man About The House fame as ringleader of the prankster school-kids.

5.5 out of 10, rounded up to 6 for the delightful Joan Sims (who quite rightly receives a 'Ding Dong' from Phillips).

There is an element of The Bash Street Kids in this third Carry On outing.

As it is set in school the smut and innuendo is light. What we get is hi jinks from school kids, upset that their beloved headmaster who does not believe in the cane, William 'Wakey' Wakefield is thinking of moving on to new pastures.

The school kids launch anarchy, itching powder, electrified door knobs, hole on the floor, teachers getting drunk to make Wakey and the teachers of Maudlin school look incompetent as the school inspector and the child psychologist pay a visit to the school.

Some of the Carry On gang are established with their personas such as Kenneth Connor as the shy one around women. In the early films, Joan Sims was regarded as a bit of sex pot as she is here to Leslie Phillips who plays the school inspector. He even managed a ding dong.

It is a fun outing, the earlier Carry On films were a different beast to the later ones. Less lascivious. As a youngster when I first saw this, it was enjoyable to see the school kids playing pranks on the teachers and get away with it.

Carrying On Inappropriately with Carry on Teacher.

A series of films carried on, with perpetual double entendre, loved to finger an organ, unleash melons to gorge on, baps, flaps, jugs, bazookas went ding dong.

Though it's not quite so funny today, Fanny plays with her balls in new ways, Dick's choppers been cut, Kitty's curtains are shut, the clams gone from splayed to being spayed.

What an awful sequence of films these were, revisited today, they demonstrate just how out of touch and offensive the so called humour of yesteryear was, and how a generation of inappropriate behaviour was considered acceptable.

Carrying On Inappropriately with Carry on Teacher.

Carry On Teacher is one of the earlier entries in the Carry On series and I found this quite funny.

The Headmaster at Maudin Street School plans to apply for another job at another school. As the students like him, they don't want him to leave. They decide to play some practical jokes just as school inspectors are about. They put chewing gum and super glue on chairs, saw a piano leg and make it collapse and launch an experimental rocket. Through all of this, two of the teachers fall in love with each other.

This sort of thing never happened when I was at school when the headmaster left!

The cast includes some of the Carry On regulars including Kenneth Williams, Hattie Jacques, Charles Hawtrey, Joan Sims, Kenneth Conner and Leslie Phillips. With Ted Ray as the Headmaster.

Have a good laugh with Carry On Teacher. Excellent.

Rating: 3 stars out of 5.

This is my review of carry on teacher which is the 3rd in the series it's set in a school where the kids run amok, great acting by the Regular crew of Williams, connor, sims and jacques, Lesley Phillips is his usual charming self also great acting by Ted ray as the headteacher, also watch out for the young Richard o Sullivan as a young student, few laughs and my favourite part is the itching scene. My overall score will be 6.5

A reasonable early CARRY ON outing, but not up there with the highs of CARRY ON NURSE. TEACHER starts off well, with the regular team appearing as teachers in a school inhabited by variously ill-behaved children (the reason for the kids' bad behaviour is strained and fairly unbelievable). There are the usual St Trinians-style hijinks, with glue and itching powder on the seats, gin in the kettle and various other badly-behaved antics. So far, so good.

Sadly, things start to disappoint around halfway through. There are endless scenes involving a supposed bomb that the pupils are making and these go nowhere and achieve nothing. There are few jokes in this section, making it fairly boring. The good news is that things rally round for a better climax involving a disastrous school play that makes up for the previous slow patch.

Of the cast, Kenneth Connor (as a love-struck science teacher) and Charles Hawtrey (as a fussy music teacher) come off the best, with the latter particularly strong. Kenneth Williams and Hattie Jacques are both slightly underused, and I found Leslie Phillips chasing after Joan Sims to be a bit sleazy this time around. Ted Ray, in a straight role as the headteacher, is a dull, although it's worth looking out for future TV star Richard O'Sullivan as one of the pupils. It's just a shame the gags couldn't have been sustained throughout as then this would have equalled the highs of the same year's NURSE.

The third film in this Carry On series was funnier than the previous two, or I am now getting the hang of who "the core" cast members may be.

The plot seemed simple enough, then took a very different twist just toward the end.

Humor-wise, the staff getting drunk was pretty good and that class discussion with Williams did have me laughing and rewinding back ("the girl who lives just down the road from us!")

With still no idea what to expect from the rest of these Carry Ons, it seems to me after three films that there is to be two romances in each films. I suspect that will change eventually.

Best thing I have seen thus far of Carry On was when everyone was hugging at the end of "Teacher" because the headmaster wouldn't be leaving and Williams, Jacques and Hawtrey all hug, each man giving her a kiss in between them.

They all stepped away and Jacques moved to the back.

The two men then came forward again for a very passionate embrace and upon realizing Jacques wasn't with them, they separated and Hawtrey gave Williams such a slap.

Nice fun and a nice perspective on school and education in film, especially this close to "Blackboard Jungle".

The Carry On series started quite well with the Sergeant, Teacher and Nurse titles. They were not great art but they were funny for their times. The performances were fresh and fairly original though they were to become caricatures of themselves in later films and a lot less funny. The scripts were quite well written and there were stories and plots which were sadly lacking in the films that followed. I have just watched Carry on Teacher on TV as an exercise in nostalgia and have to say have enjoyed it again. I just cannot watch the later Sid James, Jim Dale and Barbara Windsor ones-I find them crass and crude in the extreme. It would be a tragedy if the British film industry were judged on the whole Carry On series as they became a watchword for smut and innuendo - nothing wrong with innuendo if it is done well but the Carry On's generally did not do it well - mind you they were incredibly successful.