I was really chuffed to discover this brilliant drama from the late 1940’s. ‘Mr Perrin and Mr Traill’ is set in a coastal British public boarding school where the staff are hidebound, set in their ways and terrified of the headmaster. Many of the men teaching there are teaching because they were too old for the armed services during the recent conflict with Germany and therefore do not feel that they have ‘done their bit’ as others have done, a feeling exploited to some extent by the headmaster.

Into this fossil of a school comes David Traill a handsome, confident war hero with a respectable peacetime record as a rugby player, to put it bluntly everything that many of the staff at the school and especially Vincent Perrin a maths teacher are not. David Traill makes a deep impression on the boys he teaches and is an effective and inspiring teacher but he comes into conflict with Vincent Perrin over a number of issues some minor, such as the use by Traill of Perrin’s umbrella and some major such as Traill falling in love with a woman that Perrin admired.

The movie reminds me a little of RF Delderfield’s ‘To Serve Them All May Days’ with the new teacher coming into a tradition centred environment but this is a little more pacy than that fine book. The head teacher in this film is also different from Delderfield’s ‘Algernon Herries’ in so far as he isn’t a supportive mentor but is unlike Herries, a controlling bully. The headmaster’s bullying manner and ability to dominate and indimidate his staff is a key part of the film but it is brought into the plot subtly.

I won’t give too much away but the film has an engaging plot, compelling characters and a very exciting ending with one man paying a high price for his jealously and hatred of Traill.

I was completely unaware of the existence of this movie until relatively recently and I’m delighted to find this film. I enjoyed this movie and hope you enjoy it too.