The Happiest Days of Your Life (1950)

"Wetherby Pond" (Alastair Sim) is the headmaster of a boy's school who really just wants a peaceable life with his miscreant pupils at "Nutbourne" school. It's the war, though, and the useless mandarins at Whitehall decide that he is going to have to share his premises with another school. Thing is, they get all caught up in their own red tape and next thing he finds the intimidating "Miss Whitchurch" on his doorstep, armed with hundreds of girls, luggage, hockey sticks - you name it. They are there and there to stay. Before he can blink, "Pond" and his staff have been outmanoeuvred and his shirts are now in the filing cabinet! A sort of truce breaks out, cemented a little more when they realise that their charges have pens and paper and stamps. Letters to the parents about sharing send shivers down their spines. They must collaborate. A sudden inspection spells disaster for both of their careers unless they can institute some facility sharing legerdemain in double quick time. Will it work? Can it? Well we spend much of the rest of this amiable comedy demonstrating a degree of precision the would have made the D-Day landings blush. Sim and Rutherford both had super comedy timing and Frank Launder and John Dighton have adapted the latter man's play to ensure they get ample opportunity to demonstrate that to us. A solid supporting cast including the always entertaining Joyce Grenfell help keep this eighty minutes of mischief and mayhem working well.