The Great St. Trinian’s Train Robbery is a British comedy film directed by Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat, written by Sidney and Leslie Gilliat, and released on 4 April 1966. It is the last of the original series of films based on the St Trinian’s School set of images and comics and the only one to be produced in colour. The film stars a selection of actors from previous films in the series, including George Cole, Richard Wattis, Eric Barker, Michael Ripper, and Raymond Huntley, alongside Frankie Howerd, Reg Varney, Dora Bryan, and the voice of Stratford Johns.
The film’s story focuses on St Trinian’s becoming caught up in a train robbery after the gang who conducted it attempts to reclaim their loot from the building that the students and teachers now inhabit. The story itself is based on the actual Great Train Robbery that took place in 1963 and includes numerous parodies of the technocratic ideas of the Harold Wilson government and its support of the comprehensive school system and spoof elements based upon those from the James Bond spy films of the Sixties.
Cast
Frankie Howerd as “Alphonse of Monte Carlo” / Alfred Askett
Dora Bryan as headmistress Amber Spottiswood
George Cole as Flash Harry
Reg Varney as Gilbert
Raymond Huntley as Sir Horace, the Minister
Richard Wattis as Mr Manton Bassett
Portland Mason as Georgina
Terry Scott as Policeman
Eric Barker as Mr Culpepper Brown
Godfrey Winn as Truelove
Colin Gordon as Edward Noakes, the Insurance Assessor
Desmond Walter-Ellis as Leonard Edwards
Arthur Mullard as Big Jim
Norman Mitchell as William
Cyril Chamberlain as Maxie
Larry Martyn as Chips
Peter Gilmore as Butters
Leon Thau as Fordbridge porter
Michael Ripper as The Liftman at the Ministry
Stratford Johns as The Voice
Jeremy Clyde as Monty
George Benson as Gore-Blackwood
William Kendall as Mr Parker
Maureen Crombie as Marcia Askett
Susan Jones as Lavinia Askett
Barbara Couper as Mabel Radnage, the deputy headmistress
Elspeth Duxbury as Veronica Bledlow, the Maths mistress
Carole Ann Ford as Albertine, the French mistress
Margaret Nolan as Susie Naphill, the Arts mistress
Maggie Rennie as Magda O’Riley, the Games mistress
Jean St Clair as Drunken Dolly, the Music mistress
Jonathan Cecil as The Guardsman/Alfred Askett’s last customer before closing (uncredited)
Guy Standeven as Sir Horace’s Chauffeur (uncredited)
Schoolgirls (uncredited):
Ingrid Boulting
Sally Geeson
Sally-Jane Spencer
Michelle Scott
