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Just noticed this is on Youtube - 1961 film Spare the Rod.
Max is a teacher and a young Richard O'Sullivan is featured as well.
Think I'll give it a look...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ul8qFe0vG6s
Max is a teacher and a young Richard O'Sullivan is featured as well.
Think I'll give it a look...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ul8qFe0vG6s
Show More
Think I'll give it a Miss...
- and - without even looking.
- and - without even looking.
O'Sullivan was at most 17 when this was made so I would check there are no spanking scenes 
It pretty much ended Max's film career so it can't have been that good.
Wasn't Bygraves wife Blossom married to O'Sullivan ?
Doubt it. Blossom died in 2011 at 88 at which time she was still married to Max who lasted another year.
Found this old Guardian review of the film :
Over-sensational
Spare the Rod (Odeon) promises to be another heartening example of the new realistic school in the English cinema, but its hard, bright inspiration is softened and finally overcome by a mixture of sentimentality and sensationalism which sets in midway through the film.
Michael Croft’s novel from which the film has been adapted is an unflinching account of the problems of a young teacher trying to teach 40 adolescents in a school 50 years out of date in one of London’s tougher districts.
Unfortunately, this is not sufficiently sensational for the makers of the film, who, in a weak imitation of a full-scale Hollywood exposé, have introduced a school riot and an unbelievable sequence in which the teacher hero is supposed to he naive enough to take one of his teenage nymphets back to an empty flat late at night.
Max Bygraves has shown commendable vision in putting some of his own money into the film, but unfortunately chooses to play the leading role. He has a nice personality which fits in well with the middlebrow teacher hero – it is significant that from being a graduate in the novel, the character has been changed to a trainee – but that sentimentality which serves him so well as a popular singer betrays him as an actor. His performance is all on one optimistic note and he never suggests the emotional crisis of a teacher passionately against corporal punishment who finds the inadequacies of the school and his own lack of experience forcing him to use it.
Over-sensational
Spare the Rod (Odeon) promises to be another heartening example of the new realistic school in the English cinema, but its hard, bright inspiration is softened and finally overcome by a mixture of sentimentality and sensationalism which sets in midway through the film.
Michael Croft’s novel from which the film has been adapted is an unflinching account of the problems of a young teacher trying to teach 40 adolescents in a school 50 years out of date in one of London’s tougher districts.
Unfortunately, this is not sufficiently sensational for the makers of the film, who, in a weak imitation of a full-scale Hollywood exposé, have introduced a school riot and an unbelievable sequence in which the teacher hero is supposed to he naive enough to take one of his teenage nymphets back to an empty flat late at night.
Max Bygraves has shown commendable vision in putting some of his own money into the film, but unfortunately chooses to play the leading role. He has a nice personality which fits in well with the middlebrow teacher hero – it is significant that from being a graduate in the novel, the character has been changed to a trainee – but that sentimentality which serves him so well as a popular singer betrays him as an actor. His performance is all on one optimistic note and he never suggests the emotional crisis of a teacher passionately against corporal punishment who finds the inadequacies of the school and his own lack of experience forcing him to use it.
That review says more about The Guardian than it does Max Bygraves.
jackdaw 28 Sep 23 13:36
That review says more about The Guardian than it does Max Bygraves.
Why do you say that?
That review says more about The Guardian than it does Max Bygraves.
Why do you say that?
As noted earlier, that film was basically the end of Max's acting career. It's not just the Guardian. If there are any Bygraves fans about, perhaps they can check his memoirs or biographies to see what the man himself said.
From Wikipedia:-
Bless 'Em All (1948)
The Nitwits on Parade (1949)
Skimpy in the Navy (1949)
Tom Brown's Schooldays (1951)
Charley Moon (1956)
A Cry from the Streets (1958)
Bobbikins (1959)
Spare the Rod (1961)
The Alf Garnett Saga (1972)
The Jigsaw Man (1983) Uncredited cameo appearance (policeman)
From Wikipedia:-
Bless 'Em All (1948)
The Nitwits on Parade (1949)
Skimpy in the Navy (1949)
Tom Brown's Schooldays (1951)
Charley Moon (1956)
A Cry from the Streets (1958)
Bobbikins (1959)
Spare the Rod (1961)
The Alf Garnett Saga (1972)
The Jigsaw Man (1983) Uncredited cameo appearance (policeman)
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