Hello.
I am trying to find an old British movie I once saw a clip of.
I am pretty sure it was British, not 100% sure.
I think it was from the 1950s or early 1960s. Maybe even earlier. I am pretty sure it was in black and white.
In the scene I saw, a teacher is teaching a class of secondary school students (i.e. teenagers, but probably played by older actors) about gravity. I am pretty sure the class were all boys. I think the teacher wore one of those "mortar boards" like we wear these days at graduation. He asks a student what would happen if they threw a ball up into the air, but they didn't know about the law of gravity. The student says "We'd lose our ball". The teacher explains that no, the ball would still come down, they just wouldn't know why. He keeps talking about gravity, and eventually says "and that's why buildings are built straight up, so they don't fall down." One of the students then asks "What about the Leaning Tower of Pisa?" My memory is that this student was played by Charles Hawtrey, or someone who reminded me of him. This leads to further discussion, where they conclude that what's important is the gravity at the base of the building. Somehow they all decide to test this by building their own leaning tower by stacking up all the chairs. And somehow the teacher ends up sitting at the top of the tower of chairs. Eventually someone else comes into the room, (like the headmaster or someone else in authority) at precisely the time the base of the tower loses its gravity, or something like that, so the whole thing falls over with the teacher on top.
I thought this might be the film "Carry On Teacher", which is the right period and has Charles Hawtrey in it, but no synopsis I can find of that film contains this scene.
Anyone know what I am talking about?
I am trying to find an old British movie I once saw a clip of.
I am pretty sure it was British, not 100% sure.
I think it was from the 1950s or early 1960s. Maybe even earlier. I am pretty sure it was in black and white.
In the scene I saw, a teacher is teaching a class of secondary school students (i.e. teenagers, but probably played by older actors) about gravity. I am pretty sure the class were all boys. I think the teacher wore one of those "mortar boards" like we wear these days at graduation. He asks a student what would happen if they threw a ball up into the air, but they didn't know about the law of gravity. The student says "We'd lose our ball". The teacher explains that no, the ball would still come down, they just wouldn't know why. He keeps talking about gravity, and eventually says "and that's why buildings are built straight up, so they don't fall down." One of the students then asks "What about the Leaning Tower of Pisa?" My memory is that this student was played by Charles Hawtrey, or someone who reminded me of him. This leads to further discussion, where they conclude that what's important is the gravity at the base of the building. Somehow they all decide to test this by building their own leaning tower by stacking up all the chairs. And somehow the teacher ends up sitting at the top of the tower of chairs. Eventually someone else comes into the room, (like the headmaster or someone else in authority) at precisely the time the base of the tower loses its gravity, or something like that, so the whole thing falls over with the teacher on top.
I thought this might be the film "Carry On Teacher", which is the right period and has Charles Hawtrey in it, but no synopsis I can find of that film contains this scene.
Anyone know what I am talking about?