By using about every angle to an absurd situation, the producers of "The Happiest Days of Your Life" made a consistently amusing movie, if not a side-shaking one. The absurd situation in this movie is caused by a mistake in the (British) Ministry of Education, which assigns the one hundred girls of St. Swithin's School to the Nutbourne College for Boys.

The boys fight a losing battle for the possession of their school; the rugby goals are replaced by lacrosse goals, the boys sleep in the gym, the headmaster in an obscure bathtub. Censorship is imposed on all outgoing mail ("...and mummy, the mistresses are sharing the masters' bedrooms.")

For some visiting oversees the appearance of a boys' school must be preserved; for the girls' visiting parents, the appearance of a girls' school. The visiting parents see pajama-clad little girls snoozing peacefully. When they close the door, pajama-clad little boys spring into the beds for the benefit of the approaching overseers, preceded, of course, by little girls springing out of bed. The beautiful soprano voices of the choir drop into a rearing bass at the appropriate time. Appearances are dropped in a climatic melee featuring the girls' lacrosse team against the courageous rugger team.

Margaret Rutherford is thoroughly convincing as the bulldozing, bustling headmistress, who labels the situation "an ascending spiral of iniquity." Alastair Sim is equally good as the distracted headmaster faced with invasion, whose favorite position is a tragic out-the-window gaze.

The best gag in this London film is one not entirely in context: a servant lastly striking the brass gong is told "Take it easy. You're not introducing a picture, you know."