Rent It's Great to Be Young (1956)

Energetic, Ebullient, Colourful, Musical British Film about a School 1956 on the cusp of Rock-n-Roll - It's Great to Be Young review by PV

I loved this film. It has an infectious energy to it, a great jazz soundtrack, excellent child and teen actors, as well as John Mills as a rebel teacher (decades before Dead Poets Society) and Cecil Parker superb as a grammar school head teacher. Rather conveniently, boys and girls grammar schools are next to each other, meaning a lot of gender equality the the jazz band they form! Though the usual suspects will roll their eyes and sneer at the courting shown here of course... Back before the world went mad.

I looked up some of the child actors - the youngest, Lawson, is played by Richard O'Sullivan who went on to great success in 1970s with Man About the House and Robin's Nest.

The main character is played by Jeremy Spenser (his brother David was a well-known writer for radio and TV) who was born 1937 and a bit child actor of 1950s and a bit in 1960s, last role 1968 when he became a drama teacher apparently, as did another Wilfred Dowling. Others died young - Robert Dickens aged 55 and the bespectacled skinny schoolboy is played by Dawson French, who died age 39 in December 1980 just 2 days before John Lennon. I can find no more information.

Bryan Forbes, the late great writer and director, (Whistle Down the Wind 1961 and he directed the 1975 The Stepford Wives) features here briefly as a cockney organ salesman, which is authentic as he was from Newham and went to West Ham school!

Anyway, this is colourful, youthful, fun and hopeful SO if you are in the mood for simpler happier times, some great big band jazz (back when jazz had great tunes not squeaks and ear-splitting academic scales), and sweety boy-meets-girl courting plots, then this is for you!

4 stars. Maybe watch with the original St Trinians, which is farce by contrast and at a private school; here we have STATE grammar schools!