Death Goes to School (1953)

Excellent but underrated film

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

The Police are called to an all Girl's school, when a teacher is found dead, said teacher is a deplorable individual, upsetting each and every one of her colleagues, and also guilty of being heavy handed with her pupils. Suspicion is cast on her colleagues, the staff room is a place full of suspects, the police suspect music teacher Miss Shepherd, who takes it upon herself to find the miscreant,I'm very much a fan of 50's British B movies, and an even bigger fan of whodunits, this goes some way towards satisfying the demands. I thought the film began in very good fashion, the premise was interesting, and Miss Shepherd made an interesting amateur sleuth, the film looks nice, it's well filmed, if a little clunky. Some of the dialogue is a little flat, and the attitudes towards women seem more like 600 years old then 60, but the film's main stumbling block is the ending, it felt like suspense built for 57 minutes, they ran out of time and had to come up with an ending quickly, it was a shame, as the first three quarters of the film I really enjoyed.Solid performances all round, I don't think you'd say anyone dazzles, Gordon Jackson's Inspector Campbell is probably the most well rounded character. Enjoyable enough, 6/10

This murder mystery is so talkative and filmed in such an uncinematic fashion that one has to conclude that it would be more satisfyingly performed as a radio play.Gordon Jackson and Sam Kydd come to a girl's school to investigate the murder of one of the teachers.It turns out that she is highly unpopular and thus there are many possible suspects.However it is Barbara Murray who gets there ahead of the police in working out who is the killer.The motive being rather risible.She then suggests that the murderer takes a nap for which there are some sleeping pills available.She warns her however not to take too many,thus implying that she would be doing everyone a favour if she were to end it all,which she duly does.So it all ends with a bit of a whimper.

....so says the poster - in other words, a murder is committed in an all girls school. With a title like "Death Goes to School" full marks to theatre owners, trying to get patrons into the cinemas. Before he was Hudson, the very devoted butler who "knew his place" in the TV series "Upstairs, Downstairs" Gordon Jackson was a familiar face in a score of British films. This movie gave him a rare lead and it is easy to see why (it was a rare lead). Well, he wasn't exactly "Mr. Personality" - he had no quirkiness of character that would make his Inspector Campbell memorable.A body is discovered behind the school playing fields - it is Miss Cooper, a teacher who has no friends at the school, in other words, everyone's a suspect!!! The only clue is a footprint of a size 5 shoe!! Dour Inspector Campbell from Scotland Yard is onto the case right away - and the teachers are onto him too - "he's so big and strong, so masterful" etc and they try to make an impression. As each Mistress is interviewed a picture is drawn of Miss Cooper and it is not pretty - she is hard to get along with, is forever picking fights with the other staff members and seems to have a dislike of children!!!One of the mistresses, Miss Shephard, seems to be the real detective of the movie and armed with inside knowledge from staff and students, has her own ideas about who is the murderer. Her investigations take her out of the school, away from the teachers and into the homes of the parents. Gordon Jackson gives his usual solid, "no frills" performance. Barbara Murray (Miss Shepherd) was a newcomer who went on to have a more productive career in television with shows such as "The Power Game" and "The Plane Makers".

Synopsis: An unpopular teacher at an all girls school is found strangled behind the sports pavilion with another teacher's scarf around her throat. An inspector from Scotland Yard and his sergeant arrive to investigate. One of the teachers provides him with the clues that lead to the murderer (another member of staff) but when presented with the evidence that will lead to her discovery the murderer takes an overdose of sleeping tablets and dies.Nicely photographed but talky and dull and, apart from a few MOS exteriors (arriving and departing shots), stays firmly in the same few sets. This film was made in the days when everyone in British movies talked with perfect diction and faultless grammar - indeed in this film characters actually correct each other's grammar. Not a long vowel sound to be heard. Everyone is so po-faced and brittle it hurts. The actors do their thing in the solid, constipated, stiff upper lip, style required at the time.The plot is thin, the characters have no emotional depth but above all it is marred by a weird narrative structure. Parts of the story are voiced over by one of the teachers as she does her own investigation but most of the time the camera follows the Scotland Yard men - it doesn't work....and it beggars belief that a Scotland Yard inspector would arrive at a crime scene, enquire whether anything has been disturbed, then light a cigarette and drop the match on the floor.