The Guinea Pig (original title) (aka The Outsider) (1948)
1h 37min | Drama | 24 January 1948 (UK)
Jack Read, a working-class boy, wins a scholarship to a public school as part of a post-World War Two experiment in bringing boys of different social classes together. He meets much snobbery along the way as he strives to earn acceptance from his fellow students and some of the teaching staff.
Director: Roy Boulting
Writers: Warren Chetham Strode (play), Warren Chetham Strode (screenplay)
Stars: Richard Attenborough, Sheila Sim, Bernard Miles
1h 37min | Drama | 24 January 1948 (UK)
Jack Read, a working-class boy, wins a scholarship to a public school as part of a post-World War Two experiment in bringing boys of different social classes together. He meets much snobbery along the way as he strives to earn acceptance from his fellow students and some of the teaching staff.
Director: Roy Boulting
Writers: Warren Chetham Strode (play), Warren Chetham Strode (screenplay)
Stars: Richard Attenborough, Sheila Sim, Bernard Miles
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00Ah, Fitch, come in.
00:04How do you do, sir?
00:05Do you have good holidays, Fitch?
00:06Yes, thank you, sir.
00:07Hello, Mrs. Hartley.
00:08Marlowe asked me to give you this note.
00:10It's about my socks, I think.
00:11Oh, thank you, Fitch.
00:12Look, Fitch, you know the ropes here.
00:13Take Reed along to the dining hall, will you?
00:14There's a good chap.
00:15Yes, sir.
00:16And Fitch, show him his dormitory as well, will you?
00:17It's the same as yours.
00:18Very good, Mrs. Hartley.
00:19Now, Reed, you run along with Fitch,
00:20and both of you get a good meal before it all disappears.
00:23Marlowe, thanks, Mrs. Hartley.
00:31Well?
00:32Well, indeed.
00:34What is this school coming to?
00:36Give the boy a chance, Lloyd, dear,
00:37and come along and have your tea.
00:38Oh, by the way, Lady Tracy wants to know
00:40if David can wear his blue shirts with the collars attached.
00:42No, certainly not.
00:43It's a question of coupons.
00:44I will not have any boy letting down the standard,
00:46war or no war.
00:47White collars have been the rule at Cloisters for 30 years,
00:50and it's going on being the rule.
00:51You tell Lady Tracy with my compliments.
00:53If she can't buy any shirts with white collars,
00:55she'd better set to and make some.
00:56Out of what, Lloyd, dear?
01:00I don't propose to be dragged into an argument
01:02about an obviously incompetent woman.
01:10I'm very glad you've come here, Mr. Lorraine,
01:12although we won't admit it.
01:14Daddy's needed a house tutor for ages.
01:16Thanks.
01:17There are more boys here this term than ever before.
01:23No, no, don't move, Mr. Lorraine.
01:26Well, he's arrived.
01:28Who?
01:29Reid.
01:30Ah, yes, Reid.
01:31We walked up from town together.
01:32He asked me to weigh him.
01:33Who's Reid?
01:34He comes from an elementary school in Walthamstow.
01:36His father's a tobacconist.
01:37The headmaster asked us to take him
01:38because of this Fleming report.
01:40Whatever's that?
01:41Ah, well, the Board of Education
01:42set up a committee on public schools.
01:44To find out if we're as black as some people like to paint us.
01:46Oh, and are we?
01:47Well, they've come to the conclusion
01:48that more boys like Reid should come to schools like St. Brick.
01:51That's right, Mr. Lorraine, isn't it?
01:52Yes.
01:54So the headmaster's persuaded the governors
01:55to give the boy a scholarship.
01:56It's an experiment.
01:58What do you think of the idea, Daddy?
01:59Will it work?
02:00Ah, the head's a very shrewd man.
02:02I don't think he believes in it for one moment.
02:03He just doesn't want to be labeled as a die-hard reactionary.
02:06What's in these?
02:07Fish paste.
02:08I mean to say,
02:09how are you going to mix a boy whose father's a general
02:11with a boy whose parents keep a grocery shop in Pimlico?
02:13Eh, Lorraine?
02:14Well, boys are very malleable creatures.
02:16They usually fit in, provided they're given a chance.
02:18Don't you think?
02:19Oh, yes, Daddy.
02:20You must give him a chance.
02:21Oh, naturally.
02:22I'll give him every chance.
02:23Oh, yes, yes, yes.
02:24And I haven't told anyone where he comes from,
02:26not even Grimmett.