School for Scoundrels

School for Scoundrels (1960) is a dry British comedy you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Robert Hamer. Ian Carmichael plays Henry Palfrey, a man who loses every encounter life throws at him — shortchanged by used-car dealers, ignored by waiters, and endlessly wrong-footed by the effortlessly awful Raymond Delauney (Terry-Thomas), who has also quietly stolen the woman Henry loves.

Henry's last resort is the College of Lifemanship, run by the silky Professor Potter (Alastair Sim), where paying students absorb the theory of one-upmanship: how to unsettle opponents, win negotiations without raising your voice, and carry yourself as if the room is already yours. The script draws from Stephen Potter's popular 1950s self-help parodies, which coined the word "gamesmanship" as an ironic British social art form.

Terry-Thomas and Alastair Sim steal every scene they inhabit. It is a small, precise film — a comedy about a man realising he was always capable of standing up for himself. Stream School for Scoundrels (1960) on iFILM.