School for Sex (1969) User Reviews

A sexy early outing for horror director Pete Walker

[Leofwine_draca · 5/10 · 23 April 2016]

An early effort from Pete Walker, this one takes the form of a lightweight sex comedy that's a bit like an old Carry On or St. Trinian's movie with added nudity. It involves an unscrupulous businessman who decides to set up a business training young girls in the art of seduction, and all of the hijinks that ensue.

I always find Walker to be a professional director and his writing isn't so bad either. SCHOOL FOR SEX is obviously a low budget production, but it's an acceptable timewaster with it. Derek Aylward is a likeably roguish lead and there's a good eye for detail in the casting, too; Nosher Powell is a perfect fit as the P.E. teacher, and Rosa Alba brings a touch of class to the proceedings as the Countess. There aren't as many familiar faces here as in other British sex comedies from the era, although popular starlet Francoise Pascal makes an early appearance as one of the students.

The humour is either groan-worthy or mildly amusing depending on your tastes for this sort of stuff, but the nude scenes are plentiful and playful, and the actresses undeniably attractive. It's certainly one of the more lightweight and forgettable Pete Walker movies I've seen, but given the amount of poor British sex comedies in existence, it could be worse.

Early British sex-ploitation is barely watcheable...

[dwpollar · 3/10 · 22 October 2022]

1st watched 10/21/2022 - (Dir-Pete Walker): *not original Mono* Early British sex-ploitation is barely watcheable for the full 80 minutes not because it isn't titillating - but because it gets boring. It's the story of a well-to-do man who keeps skirting the law despite his guilt as he only gets a suspension for money laundering. He than decides to start a supposed sex-ed school disguised as a finishing school for girls to get money back from wrongs against him by his many wives. It's portrayed as more of a way to tease older rich men with some physical therapy done in underwear, primarily for the audience. The first group bring great results somehow, but it finally catches up to them as the police are keeping their eye on things. It's amazing how this movie got an "X" rating from the British censors when it was released, but would definetly only get an "R" rating, at least in America today. The writer/director & producer was supposedly trying to make money off the lightening of restrictions in British cinema, but it definetly doesn't stand up in today's world. A very silly premise with a lot of teasing, but not enough to keep our modern folks interested, and the bottom-line it's also very poor filmmaking with some scenes that don't even make any sense. This is kind of like a slightly more raunchy extended Benny Hill episode, but not as funny.

Nosher Powell in a speaking role.

[torrascotia · 3/10 · 14 March 2022]

I had decided to watch this on the basis that Nosher Powell was in this, the only other movie I have seen with him was Eat The Rich. He seemed to be mainly cast as a background heavy in things like The Sweeney, but as his name was prominent on the title it was obvious he had a larger part to play.

I am also interested in older UK movies, these sex based comedies seemed to be a big thing in the 70s and watching this it was hard to tell if it was 60s or 70s, however it was made in 69. No pun intended.

For me there wasnt a single person in this movie I recognised which suggested a low budget.

The story is about some rich gentry who is in court for running a brothel after being fleeced by a line of women leaving him broke, so he turns to immoral earnings. The bulk of the story being a flashback. Very little happens however. Its basically a set of scenes were women find a reason to strip under the guise of them being trained to seduce rich men.

What is striking is how the bodies of women have changed since the 60s. The women here have never set foot in a multi gym so their bodies are much more natural looking.

Overall the tone of this is a bit Benny Hill but without the silent treatment or the obvious humour. There is no sex on show however there is full on nudity in some scenes, that will be why its a X rating then.

Like most exploitation movies the poster promises more than it delivers, its just not engaging or entertaining.

As for Nosher, yes he has a prominent speaking role and looks very young in this. Despite being a bit part actor in the main he is probably the biggest name in this.

Hard to recommend expect for the curious....

The Flesh and Flesh Show

[gavcrimson · 19 May 2002]

SPOILERS INCLUDED Pete Walker is an enigma. Cool it Carol, Frightmare and House of Whipcord are all excellent movies. Unfortunately Walker was also responsible for misfires like House of the Long Shadows and Home Before Midnight, as well as legitimately terrible films like Tiffany Jones. Long before his sex and horror movies even registered with critics and audiences, however Walker was just another faceless 1960's exploitation director turning out museum piece tease items like 'I Like Birds', and cheapo gangster thrillers like 'Man of Violence' and 'Strip-Poker'. The only film of Walker's early years still in circulation School For Sex gave its 37 year old director his first big success. It's box-office popularity largely being down to its ad-campaign which centred around that old mainstay of pervy cinema-the sexy schoolgirl-and promised 'Derek Aylward and a bevy of gorgeous form mistresses'. Supercad Giles Wingate (Aylward) returns home from a stint in the army to discover he has inherited his parent's large estate and all the monetary trimmings. But soon he blows this good fortune on a succession of wives each more crafty and gold-digging than the last. 'Brazen fortune-seeking wenches'-their numbers include a heavy handed masseuse, a maid who 'took advantage of the young Wingate's democratic, socialist ideals' by jumping into bed with him, and a sex actress authentically played by Nicola Austine. After the dust has settled Giles is left penniless by his wives spending,and nearly sent to jail for embezzling.

Using his own misfortune as example the multiple-divorcee decides that his fellow man's Achilles heel is 'crumpet' and proves his point by taking a friend to a Soho stripclub, where a flash of tits and bums turn well-composed businessmen into bug-eyed knee tremblers with strategically placed hats and coats on their laps. Giles decides to open a 'school for sex' where young women can learn how to separate wealthy men from their wealth. His friend who has contacts in the prison service promises to send him some female cons as his first 'pupils'. To pull the swindle off Giles rounds up all manner of cronies-including a drunken ex-Windmill girl (Rosa Alba) and a sex crazed yokel (eternal heavy Nosher Powell). The girls arrive semi-clad in a transit van, and barely bat a false eyelash when told that instead of going to Holloway Jail they're to become rich man's prostitutes. 'Training' includes Nosher Powell supervised PE lesions in multi-coloured underwear,and trying out seduction techniques on Giles' wrinkly retainer ('wiggle,dear,wiggle'). The pimp in a smoking jacket's plan turns out to be a success,too much of a success. News reaches Downing Street that supposedly imprisoned girls have been wedding and shaking down politicians, Eastern businessmen and 'horror film producer Sidney Mayers'. A nosy slow-witted policeman and an envious Colonel prove themselves party poopers by leading a siege on Wingate's abode. And the film ends with an interminable tussle between vice squad officers and glamour girls. Even by the standards of the day this is a primitive and tame effort, and one that fails to even register as a comedy. The level of humour best illustrated by the fact that Walker had cut his showbiz teeth as a stand-up comic, and didn't get a laugh till the second house. School for Sex also recalls Walker's background directing and distributing 'glamour home movies' for the 8mm market. Essentially short films featuring 60's 'dolly birds' posing in and out of clothes. A more profitable venture- Walker claimed to have shot around 470 of these titles, sold predominately by Newsagents and Mail-Order. Walker constructs School for Sex like an ongoing series of glamour shorts-with sequences featuring Soho striptease, a topless secretary, the girls peeling down to their underwear to harass an old codger in a bowler hat, and a fair recreation of a glamour short with Walker as a rapist who gets tied up by Nicola Austine's bra and knickers. On their own these sequences are occasionally cute and now possess a dated charm, but expanded to feature length and strung together by a flimsy excuse for a narrative School for Sex loses its appeal early on. The film also suffers from a familiar problem faced by directors of early British nudies- in casting pretty models and expecting them to do more than look pretty and model. Maria Frost, a photographic subject of many a bondage and glamour pictorial, was honest enough to constantly remind nudie directors she was a model and couldn't act. However it's frequent co-star Cathy Howard she should have been apologizing for. While Antony Balch managed to coach memorable turns from Frost and Howard for his Secrets of Sex, in Walker's hands the sexploitation duo are disappointingly non-entities. Howard gives a painful performance, visibly struggling to inject life into her dialogue which tellingly includes 'think you can remember your lines OK'. While Frost has a thankless, mute role as a schemer who sticks her breasts in Aylward's face. Suffice to say you're unlikely to remember either girl here, unless in Maria's case you were Derek Aylward. Walker uses Aylward very much in the way Lindsay Shonteff utilized Jack May in his exploitation films- casting the previously 'respectable' actor in a succession of unhealthy middle-aged lecher roles. Aylward is perfect- whether he's getting a massage or upon being confronted by a trio of girls in fetish maid outfits, falling to his knees babbling 'I must have known you when you were all just little.tiny things'. Aylward never looked back and by the end of the Seventies had dropped his trousers for hardcore loops and balling roles in Mary Millington vehicles 'Come Play With Me' and 'The Playbirds'. As if his School for Sex persona had rubbed off on him in real life. Although it no doubt bored audiences to tears, School for Sex enjoyed lengthy playdates at Mr Provisor's Cinephone in Oxford Street and the Cohen families' Jacey cinemas in Charing Cross Road and Piccadilly Circus. As it is, School for Sex is one British sexploitation film best left back in 1969.

About as sexy as dirty dishwater

[Stevieboy666 · 3/10 · 9 July 2023]

Dastardly Giles Wingate (Derek Aylward) sets up a finishing school for girls at his large English country manor, teaching delinquent sexy young girls how to financially extort rich men. I am a fan of the horror movies of British cult director Pete Walker so when 88 Films released a box set of his sex movies on a whim I bought a copy. I decided to start with School For Sex, oh dear, I was not impressed. This movie now looks and sounds very dated with words such as "bird", "wench" and "crumpet" used to describe women, and there is no sexual equality here - women are seen stark naked but the men are always at least partially clothed. Early on there is a flashback scene to when Giles was 21 but Aylwood would have been 46 at the time! This is meant to be a comedy but I didn't find it very funny. Don't bother watching the prudish British release, instead go for the Continental version which has far more nudity. Apart from seeing a few nice "birds" I did enjoy looking at the old motor vehicles, most of which would have been built in Britain before the death of the UK motor industry.

Meh

[Groverdox · 5/10 · 24 February 2019]

Pete Walker was an exploitation filmmaker who made some ridiculous, entertaining flicks in the '70s, such as "The Flesh and Blood Show" and "Schizo". These were horror movies with an abundance of nudity.

He got his start in pure sexploitation, like the inexplicable "For Men Only", and "School for Sex", his second movie, which was a surprise hit in its native Britain.

The movie opens with a guy in court. Apparently he is in trouble with the law. Then we are shown the school of sex, with some girls in skimpy French maid type outfits.

There is a loquacious voiceover which is really just a distraction. When your narrator has verbal diarrheoa, you tend to stop listening and the voice becomes like white noise.

We are actually still in the court room. It appears the lawyer is detailing the protagonist's misbehaviour. The next scene is even more confusing: the guy with a woman in colour while black-and-white and possibly silent footage is intercut, because the woman is an actress, or something.

The theme seems to be that all the women we see the guy with fleeced him. He's some kind of aristocrat - Lord Wingate.

Some lady - perhaps an opposing solicitor - stands up to raise her objections about Wingate and he smiles and winks at her, briefly seeing through her clothing, "Immoral Mister Teas" style - and, charmed by the wink, she just sits down again. Uh huh. This Wingate ain't even that much to look at.

As you expect from sexploitation, the movie really doesn't skimp on nudity, showing bare breasts and pubic hair at only about five minutes in, and then barely letting a minute pass without showing more. After the montage of scenes showing Wingate's dalliance with topless and occasionally bottomless women, we move out of the courthouse and straight into a strip show.

And one thing that you can say for these movies is that the women are beautiful.

Wingate realises that men, no matter how wealthy and sensible, all have a weakness for "crumpet", ie. sex.

Wingate apparently intends to turn his old homestead into the titular "School for Sex", with the help of Fred, an elderly butler.

He is visited by an apparently alcoholic duchess who downs a brandy in one shot.

Elsewhere, four sexy ladies are travelling in the back of a van while a handsome young man hides in the back with them. He tells them to strip, which they do, to the consternation of the guy driving. A policeman happens upon them and they con their way into Wingate Manor. I didn't really understand that bit.

Then we see another pretty lady, older than the other ones so far, apparently being stalked by a guy with thinning red hair. This would be played for scares if it were made today. Here, it is depicted as though it were amusing.

The two both hide out at Wingate manor, where the lord employs the stalker, and doesn't even ask him what he's doing in his house.

The four girls from before arrive in the van, still attired in their tacky '60s underwear.

The action cuts to a man and woman apparently about to have sex on the manor grounds where they are discovered. The woman is naked, but surprisingly, Walker doesn't give us a good look.

We then get some scenes that show the "school of sex" in action. Women are shown being taught how to get a man's attention in one scene, and then how to give a massage in another - with Wingate as the model to be worked on.

Inexplicably, the stalker from before is shown giving the women calisthenics lessons, which they do wearing bikinis that do not cover their butt cracks.

I say it is inexplicable, because I'm not sure why the stalker would be tasked with this mission, or any other. A copper spies on them from the bushes, and is informed by some other guy that Wingate is up to no good and he's going to get to the bottom of it.

With these scenes, the movie surprisingly starts to limit the amount of nudity, though we still get beautiful girls, scantily clad.

The movie seriously lulls with some insignificant rubbish about coppers and townfolk finding out about the illegal goings on at the innocuously named School for Sex. They bust in on a ton of near-naked girls.

And then the movie's over, with yet another court scene.

I would not recommend sitting through "School for Sex" as I have just done. It does have some hot girls in it, but it is not erotic, and the nudity isn't shown very well after that first strip scene. Watch clips of it on Ancensored or YouTube, but don't waste your time watching the whole thing.

Wingate Manor

[richardchatten · 1/10 · 30 October 2019]

A huge financial success in 1969. Like most postwar British films of the forties & fifties the action of this film takes place in a big country house; but despite the title the budget for 'School for School' didn't stretch to similarly spacious interiors, so the lessons indoors are decidedly confined. (Writer-director Peter Walker makes matters even worse by seeming to have learned how to stage his actors by exclusively studying films made prior to 1914; even down to the comic bobby prowling about the undergrowth.)

The patrician hero, Derek Aylward, is required by the script to occasionally lapse into using uncouth expressions like "birds", "crumpet" and "lovely lolly"; while the one authentically foxy female in it is 'Deputy Headmistress' 50 year-old Rose Alba as drunken procuress The Duchess of Burwash, never seen without a double brandy in her hand.

Like most of Walker's films it's very cynical about what makes people tick; the men being generally gormless & easily manipulated and the women mercenary.

Fun'n'frothy British sex comedy romp

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 11 July 2016]

Suave rich dandy Lord Wingrate (a solid and likable performance by Derek Aylward) starts a private finishing school in order to teach attractive young women how to extract money from wealthy men. Wingrate gets a percentage of their fiscal gains in return for his lessons.

Writer/director Pete Walker relates the enjoyably screwball story at a snappy pace, maintains a pleasing cheeky tone throughout, milks a substantial serving of laughs from the amusing sense of blithely bawdy humor, and delivers a generous amount of tasty bare distaff skin. Moreover, this movie further benefits from lively contributions from Rose Alba as alcoholic instructor the Countess of Burwash, Bob Andrews as the meddlesome Sgt. Braithewaite, Vic Wise as bumbling probation officer Horace Clapp, and Nosher Powell as clumsy oaf gym teacher Hector. The pulchritudinous presences of such lovely birds as luscious brunette Francoise Pascal, buxom blonde Amber Dean Smith, the fetching Cathy Howard, and the voluptuous Sylvia Barlow certainly doesn't hurt matters in the least. Both Harry South's right-on smooth jazzy score and the vibrant color cinematography by Reg Phillips are up to par. A real hoot.

Amusing sixties sex comedy

[The_Void · 6/10 · 4 February 2008]

I wasn't really sure what to expect going into this one; my experience of Peter Walker extends only to his horror movies, some of which are excellent (House of Whipcord) while others are terrible (Die Screaming Marianne). School for Sex is an early Walker film (actually, his first according to IMDb) and it's his attempt at a sex comedy. The film doesn't exactly have a great reputation among the few who have seen it, and that's not really surprising - but all the same, I actually rather liked this silly little film. Naturally, everything in it is rather tame these days, and compared to other films like this from the late sixties - not all that lurid for the time it was released in. The film was obviously intended to be more of a comedy than a sex film, and doesn't go much further than showing it's female cast topless. The plot focuses on a man convicted for fraud. He decides to start up his own 'school for sex' with the help of a local Duchess. There he teaches girls how to seduce men and get them to part with their cash...

The plot was clearly not the main thing on Peter Walker's mind. The film is only short, running about seventy five minutes and the story neither goes anywhere nor has any real point. Obviously the main aim of the film was to show a bit of skin and make his audience laugh, and Walker just about achieved both of those aims. The comedy isn't really very funny, but it's all very light-hearted and the film has a sort of British charm to it which is nice. I can certainly see why the film doesn't have a great deal of fans; aside from the reasons mentioned, this is never going to be a film that will appeal to everyone; porn fans are likely to be disappointed at the lack of sex and nudity, while non-porn fans probably wont enjoy it much either. The central idea certainly could have lead to a much better movie too; I have to admit that I enjoy movies about people being conned anyway, and showing young girls doing it to 'men who should know better' could have been much more fun. On the whole, this is not exactly Peter Walker's best work, but for what is I enjoyed it, although I wouldn't recommend anyone going to great lengths to track it down!

Sexy spin and satire take on showing skin and teaching all involved lessons!

[blanbrn · 8/10 · 31 December 2016]

"School for Sex" another entry from Paul Walker is a little bit more blunt provocative and open as far as showing skin. Still it's a joy even though the plot might be a little lame still it entertains and each involved both the pretty women and rich playboys learn lessons in the end. After a rich playboy is in court for fraud upon getting away he decides to open up a house to teach girls new manners and how to go for rich men and learn how to control. And plenty of hot scenes are shown of girls wearing sexy colored bras and nudity and love scenes push it a little for a British film. Thru it all the fun and erotic tease games all come to an end still this picture entertained in a sexy and unique manner.

A topless version of the Benny Hill show

[Baldach · 6/10 · 22 July 2002]

My local Blockbuster did not have the film I wanted so I rented this film instead. As I watched this film I thought I was watching a topless version of the Benny Hill show. The Benny Hill show included recurring sketches where Benny played "a dirty old man from Britain" trying to seduce an attractive young ladies. I thought this film had the similiar theme of the Benny Hill sketches except the girls were often topless in this movie. Even though the film was "wild" for the late 60's it may be consider only a comedy farce by today standards. I consider this a good movie when a person wants to watch a no plot comedy with topless ladies. Only warning is that the quality of the movie may be sub standard since this was a low budget film, and the color, tint, and sharpness may have faded.

"The First Mrs.Wingate".

[morrison-dylan-fan · 6/10 · 4 September 2013]

With having enjoyed writer/director Pete Walker's sadly forgotten British Sex Comedy Tiffany Jones,(which has been stopped from ever seeing the light of day again,thanks to lead actress Anouska Hempel buying the rights to the movie)I decided that it would be a good time to take a look at Walker's first ever Sex Comedy.

The plot:

Relived after being given a suspended sentence for fraud, (which he committed due to getting married to any piece of "arm candy" that walked past him) Giles Wingate decides to use the lessons that he has picked up from his divorce's to his own advantage.

Secretly talking to a barrister who was present at the trial,Wingate arranges a deal that will involve women on parole being sent to a "correctional school" based at his house,which will actually involve Wingate, (who along with the barrister will take a 33% cut from any of the women's future earnings)and his staff teaching the women to seduce old,wealthy men.Agreeing to the deal,Wingate is initially thrilled at the results from his new "school",until he begins to notice that the local townspeople are giving the school/house some unwanted extra attention.

View on the film:

Despite writer/director Pete Walker now being a bit Mr Grumpy about the movie,(with Walker calling the film "Terrible" in a recent interview)the quick-pace screenplay actually creates an interesting rough sketch of the themes that Walker would infamously pick up upon in his Horror work,with Walker showing all law enforcement,from the judges to the local police officer,to be deeply corrupt,self serving slime balls.

Backed by Walker's crisp directing,which is given a great realistic edge thanks to mostly being filmed on location,each of the cast give charmingly cheerful performance's.Whilst Walker's claims that he was cast completely by "mistake",Derek Aylward gives a very good performance as Giles Wingate,thanks to Aylward emphasising the charming side of the character,instead of the easier to reach slimy side,which along with the absolutely gorgeous actress's make this school one that is well worth attending.