Old Mother Riley, Headmistress is a low budget black and white 1950 British comedy film, starring Arthur Lucan and Kitty McShane. The 13th film in the Old Mother Riley series, it features the Luton Girls Choir playing many of Mother Riley's pupils.
Daughter Kitty is sacked from her job as music teacher at an exclusive girls school, but Mother Riley unexpectedly comes into an inheritance, and decides to buy the girls finishing school and give Kitty her job back. Mother Riley soon establishes herself as headmistress at St. Mildred's School for Young Ladies, and throws herself into her new role with vigour, whether it's taking P.E. lessons, brazenly cheating on Sports Day, or confronting the haunted school piano.
Daphne Snowdrop Bluebell Riley ... Arthur LucanKitty Riley ... Kitty McShaneSchool Choir ... The Luton Girls ChoirBill Travers ... Willer NealMaltby ... Cyril SmithClifton Hill ... C. Denier WarrenMiss Helen Carruthers ... Enid HewittNixon ... Paul SheridanSimon ... Harry HerbertCopeland ... Oswald WallerMlle Leblanc ... Jenny MathotMiss Chester ... Myrette MorvenLady Meersham ... Ethel RoyalMayor ... Bill StephensMiss Ashton ... Catherine Carleton (Katie Boyle)Mrs Shaw ... Dorothy Darke1st laundry girl ... Vi Kaley2nd laundry girl ... Jaqueline StanleyMaisie ... Beth RossMrs Clarke ... Madge BrindleyWoman ...Pamela HillChauffeur ... Graham TonbridgeGirls ... Patricia OwensGenine GrahamJoy FrankauBetty BensonMary ThompsonSuzanne WildeDoorn Van SteyneCoral WoodsJoy AdamsCora FarrelSally OwenLyn JamesUrsula HopwoodDiana ConnellAnthony Nield wrote in the The Digital Fix, " whilst the idea of Old Mother Riley owning her own girls’ school should provide plenty of comic mileage, we’re still faced with some pointless musical numbers to pad things out...(but) there’s a chirpiness and a punch in the screenplay which is hard not to enjoy. Of course, any level of sophistication is kept at a bare minimum (Lucan was never the subtlest of actors; he performed for the camera just as he did on the stage), but in its own way …Headmistress has an energy equal to that of, say, Hellzapoppin' or the Marx Brothers A Night in Casablanca, even if both are far superior and much funnier. There’s a non-stop quality to the gags which, whilst the film may ultimately be forgettable, amounts to great deal of fun. Certainly, for a thirteenth entry in a big screen franchise (and one made almost as many years after the first), it’s far better than we should rightfully expect."TV Guide noted, "a poor addition to the "Old Mother Riley" stable...If you see only one "Old Mother Riley" film in your lifetime, don't make it this one.""Fielding's Review" wrote, "lots of fun gags in this one. Along with Old Mother Riley Meets the Vampire, it’s the best of the set."
