A French Mistress
Original British quad poster
Directed by	Roy Boulting
Screenplay by	Roy Boulting Jeffrey Dell
Based on	play The French Mistress by Sonnie Hale
Produced by	John Boulting
Starring	Cecil Parker James Robertson Justice Ian Bannen
Cinematography	Mutz Greenbaum
Edited by	John Jympson
Music by	John Addison
Production company	Charter Film Productions
Distributed by	British Lion (U.K.) Films Around the World (U.S.)
Release date	25 August 1960 (1960-08-25) (London)
Running time	98 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

A French Mistress is a 1960 British comedy film directed by Roy Boulting and starring Cecil Parker, James Robertson Justice, Agnès Laurent, Ian Bannen, Raymond Huntley, Irene Handl and Thorley Walters.^[1]

It is based on a stage play, The French Mistress by Sonnie Hale under the pen name Robert Monro, first produced in 1955 at the Theatre Royal Windsor, starring Hale.^[2][3][4]

Production

Production was filmed at Shoreditch Training College, Englefield Green, Borough of Runnymede, Surrey, England,^[5][6] formerly the Royal Indian Engineering College.

Plot summary

A young French woman, Madaleine Lafarge, is unintentionally appointed as the French teacher at an English public school for boys, which is not used to having women teachers. She causes a stir with pupils and other school staff, and complications ensue.

A romance develops between Lafarge and the headmaster's son who is also a teacher at the school. This is a cause of concern for the headmaster when he comes to believe that she is his daughter, from an affair he had during a holiday in France in his youth. He attempts to stop the romance by sacking her, so that she will go back to France, but the boys go on strike and nearly riot. All the problems are resolved when it becomes apparent that she cannot be his daughter.

Cast

• Cecil Parker as Headmaster John Crane
• James Robertson Justice as Robert Martin
• Ian Bannen as Colin Crane
• Agnès Laurent as Madeleine LaFarge
• Raymond Huntley as Reverend Edwin Peake
• Irene Handl as Staff Sergeant Hodges
• Edith Sharpe as Matron
• Kenneth Griffith as Mr Meade
• Robert Bruce as Mr Ramsay
• Thorley Walters as Colonel Edmonds
• Henry Longhurst as 2nd Governor
• Brian Oulton as 3rd Governor
• Scot Finch as Edmonds, Head Boy
• Richard Palmer as Milsom
• Peter Greenspan as Wigram
• David Griffin as Slater
• Jeremy Bulloch as Baines
• David Diarmid Cammell as Vane
• Chris Sandford as Poole
• Gregory Warwick as Warwick
• Nigel Bulloch as Proffit
• Gordon Pleasant as Benson
• Michael Crawford as Kent
• Pearson Dodd as Church
• Christopher Beeny as Stephenson
• Athene Seyler as Beatrice Peake
• Cardew Robinson as Ambulance Attendant
• Margaret Lacey as Kitchen Maid
• Paul Sheridan as M Fraguier, Previous French Teacher

Box office

Kine Weekly called it a "money maker" at the British box office in 1960.^[7]

Critical reception

Bosley Crowther in The New York Times wrote, "We would have expected something better from the Boultings and Mr. Dell. A good cast of old familiars—excepting Agnes Laurent, a newcomer who plays the mademoiselle – try to do something with it and occasionally do all right with a line here, a facial expression or a situation there. Cecil Parker puffs and pouts as the headmaster, and Ian Bannen stands up stoutly as his son. Raymond Huntley and James Robertson Justice do their acts as other masters in the school. Irene Handl also draws a few fast laughs as the compulsively pugnacious cook, and Edith Sharpe and Athene Seyler cluck politely as the only other females around the place. But the ministrations of the stalwarts do not quite save the day. The Boultings are onto a sticky wicket with that silly sex-scandal stuff."^[8]

Theme

Tamahine, three years later (1963), used the same theme.