DISTRIBUTOR: Associated British Picture Corporation
YEAR: 1960
DIRECTOR: Robert Hamer
CAST : Ian Carmichael, Terry-Thomas, Alistair Sim, Jeanette Scott
Ian Carmichael plays a mild mannered loser in this hilarious classic. His emloyees treat him as if he isn't the boss, crooked car salesmen sell him one of the worst cars in existence, and generally is a complete loser. When he start's dating Jeanette Scott things don't get any better. They turn up at a resturant only to find the Maitre d' knows nothing about their reservation. Enter the ultimate smoothy and cad, Terry-Thomas. He lords it over Carmichael's date for the entire date, and cons him into paying for the meal. Then, to make matters worse, he is humiliated by Terry-Thomas in a tennis match in fromt of Jeanette. Well, this is the last straw for Carmichael so he joins the Yeovil School Of Oneupmanship run by Alistair Sim. A school that teaches people ploys to win in situations where they are always losing.
This is the ultimate Terry-Thomas film. He is at his cad best as Roger De Lorney tormenting poor Ian Carmichael. Carmichael is great as the complete loser, always on the receiving end of Terry-Thomas' sneaky ploys. The way Carmichael gets his own back on all the people who harrass him is priceless. I won't spoil how he does, but it is superb.
The scenes of him training at the college are good, featuring some incredibly funny scene's of ploys that he doesn't use, such as the class of "how to bring the party loudmouth down to earth". This features a man telling a joke about someone with a wooden leg. At the end of joke, the teacher limps across the room totally humiliating the joker.