Frankly this film had totally passed me by until they wheeled it out on Talking Pictures tonight. I'm always going to watch anything with Ralph Richardson - more than I can say for Olivier - and as always he did not disappoint. He was supported by an odd cast to say the least, John Laurie, Raymond Huntley, Dickie Attenborough, Marjorie Rhodes, all striving to give the impression they were in the same film. Peter Ustinove was making his debut behind the camera and he can't blame the writer for his laxness because he wrote it as well. On the other hand I was glad to stumble across it and wallow in its Old English Lavender vibes.
11 Reviews
Secrets Is Right.
rmax3048234 January 2018
I'm not certain that the Brits were quite ready to reveal their secrets (like high-tech radar or "windows") even in 1946 because so much of this film is made of chit chat about uniforms and interloping schoolmasters. I learned something about the stresses involved but little about the shadier side of the work.
The talkiness is somewhat relieved towards the end when the film takes us on bombing missions over Europe, following a boffin or a doughty RAF man like Richard Attenborough. Pretty daring, actually, those scenes of flight.
But the Brits were on the brink of making some of the finest films about World War II that ever appeared on screen, "The Cruel Sea," for instance. And this one looks a little pallid.
The talkiness is somewhat relieved towards the end when the film takes us on bombing missions over Europe, following a boffin or a doughty RAF man like Richard Attenborough. Pretty daring, actually, those scenes of flight.
But the Brits were on the brink of making some of the finest films about World War II that ever appeared on screen, "The Cruel Sea," for instance. And this one looks a little pallid.
How The War Was Won
georgewilliamnoble3 July 2021
The war had only just ended but as early as 1946 the British film industry swung into action to relive the actions victories battles and inventions of the British war effort. British movie goers in an era before television flocked to such stories for more than a decade the war was to remain big box office at British cinemas. This lesser know boffin movie was quickly produced soon after the end of hostilities and it proves accomplished entertainment with a very strong cast of famous names and faces with the highlight on British scientific achievement from somewhat eccentric but brilliant minds.
A disappointment.
Adira-220 April 2001
My local TV guide gave me high expectations for this movie ... but alas I was disappointed. It's not that the acting is bad. With Ralph Richardson in the lead how could it be? Nor is the subject matter uninteresting. However "School for Secrets" is poorly constructed. It piles scene on scene, without building up to a proper climax. It has too many main characters - and most of them are written as semi-humorous stereotypes. One day someone will make the definitive movie about the development of radar during World War II, but this isn't it.
Slow but steady
gwydh6 December 2020
Some Other People Are In A Movie With Ralph Richardson
boblipton2 November 2021
Ralph Richardson is a well-known herpetologist among people who know who's who in herpetology. He's also an electronics engineer and attached to the unit developing radar for the RAF.
You could put Ralph Richardson in anything, and I would praise it to the skies. Saying he's perfectly cast as the understated boffin who tackles whatever is thrown at him in a self-deprecating manner, whether it's turning down an opportunity to join the Home Guard because he's too busy or parachuting into German territory to take apart a prototype of the German efforts at radar, he's always highy watchable and believable. In this movie, he's got quite a cast with him under the scripting and direction of Peter Ustinov: John Laurie, Finlay Currie and Raymond Huntley among the boffins, David Tomlinson and Richard Attenborough among the fliers. Ann Wilton and Peggy Evans are among the women who get a few lines, but it's a bit of "men must fight and women must weep" movie for them. Still, even Finlay Currie barely seems in the movie, when compared with Richardson, which is all right with me.
You could put Ralph Richardson in anything, and I would praise it to the skies. Saying he's perfectly cast as the understated boffin who tackles whatever is thrown at him in a self-deprecating manner, whether it's turning down an opportunity to join the Home Guard because he's too busy or parachuting into German territory to take apart a prototype of the German efforts at radar, he's always highy watchable and believable. In this movie, he's got quite a cast with him under the scripting and direction of Peter Ustinov: John Laurie, Finlay Currie and Raymond Huntley among the boffins, David Tomlinson and Richard Attenborough among the fliers. Ann Wilton and Peggy Evans are among the women who get a few lines, but it's a bit of "men must fight and women must weep" movie for them. Still, even Finlay Currie barely seems in the movie, when compared with Richardson, which is all right with me.
Ripping yarn with classy cast and director is an English post war gem
hedgehog-138 September 1999
This film, about how "boffins" contributed to the English war effort (by inventing airborne radar and other technological miracles), was made to help everyone cheer up and keep that upper lip stiff during the hard post-war recovery years.
The real delight in watching it from 50 years distance is in the acting, writing and direction. We have grown used to seeing the likes of Richardson, Huntley, Hordern, Attenborough, Laurie et al in "feature" roles (nay, on display as museum exhibits). Most of them are now gone, but when this film was made--at the hand of the incomparable Peter Ustinov--they were in their prime and they were playing main characters. It is a little like the days "when gods walked the earth".
The delight in this film is not in the plot (although it is a sobering reminder of just how much technology has moved this century) but in the language of the Ustinov script and in the effortless way that the principals go about their craft. I doubt that any of the four knighthoods given to director and cast were for this film, but one can see in it film why they achieved this recognition in the end.
"School for Secrets" remains, as I am sure it was always intended to be, a "jolly fine" cheer-up story.
The real delight in watching it from 50 years distance is in the acting, writing and direction. We have grown used to seeing the likes of Richardson, Huntley, Hordern, Attenborough, Laurie et al in "feature" roles (nay, on display as museum exhibits). Most of them are now gone, but when this film was made--at the hand of the incomparable Peter Ustinov--they were in their prime and they were playing main characters. It is a little like the days "when gods walked the earth".
The delight in this film is not in the plot (although it is a sobering reminder of just how much technology has moved this century) but in the language of the Ustinov script and in the effortless way that the principals go about their craft. I doubt that any of the four knighthoods given to director and cast were for this film, but one can see in it film why they achieved this recognition in the end.
"School for Secrets" remains, as I am sure it was always intended to be, a "jolly fine" cheer-up story.
Slightly tedious history lesson
Leofwine_draca21 February 2020
Warning: Spoilers
SCHOOL FOR SECRETS is a character drama exploring the loves and lives of a group of British boffins who were responsible for developing cutting edge radar technology to turn the tide against German bombers in WW2. It's not a particularly exciting movie, although there are a few scenes of aerial combat and training dotted throughout that I suppose would have been the equivalent of similar moments in TOP GUN back in the day. The film is genuinely worth a watch if you don't expect much, and the presence of numerous cast members like Richard Attenborough, Ralph Richardson, David Tomlinson, and Raymond Huntley (in his swimming trunks, no less!) eases the slight air of tedium that hangs over the proceedings.
Old fashioned but great fun
Beakyboy22 January 2020
Not exactly a true reflection of the boffins and their work. But as a piece of history it is spot on - unlike the bombing which never was. It shows the accents, how people lived (my god, the wall paper) and what was important to them. Of course this was a film meant to buck everyone up, to believe they were making a difference and all was well. The acting is very British of that time, I grew up post war when people still talked like that.
Facts from a JSO who was at TRE.
rbrettknowles25 August 2009
I was a Junior Scientific Officer at TRE Malvern and lent my Wellington aircraft to the film makers to show 'window' deployment. I recall seeing a clip of this activity in 1946, whether in a cinema or at TRE theatre I cannot recall. The DVD does not show it. The DVD is factually incorrect,the acting dreadful and the plot frequently chronologically incorrect. Life at TRE was nothing like that portrayed and the love story sloppy in the extreme The operator in the Bruneval Raid was Flight Sergeant Cox, the only person dressed in RAF uniform. Probably as some colonel in a plush office whose nearest to the war was the golf course or polo ground saying that'We can't have an RAF chap in army uniform eh what' It was this raid which caused the overnight exodus from Worth to Malvern College for fear of reprisals. R.B-K
Delightful film, entertaining and amusing
mjmmm-4404525 February 2021
Don't watch this film if you are looking for technical details on radar development, as one 'boffin' reviewer has done. This was written and acted as entertainment, not an educational film, and as such it succeeds. Never seen it before this afternoon, but thoroughly enjoyed watching some of our finest actors from that period, with witty banter that was typical of that era. Recommended as a reminder that we still had a sense of humour, despite the recent end to WWII.
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