No Kidding

No Kidding is a 1960 British comedy film directed by Gerald Thomas featuring Leslie Phillips, Geraldine McEwan and Irene Handl, Noel Purcell and Julia Lockwood. The film is adapted from Verily Anderson's 1958 memoir Beware of Children, under which title the film was released in the US. Anderson also wrote the screenplay. The film has been interpreted by film scholar Wheeler Dixon as "a gentle critique of A. S. Neill's Summerhill, whose theories were published in America in the same year as the film's release, by the Hart Publishing Company. Harrison's Reports gave it a good review, calling it an "uneven but well-enacted comedy by the 'Carry On ...' series film-makers.... Unobjectionable for all." Elsewhere it is described as "surprisingly sophisticated fare that also scores a number of interesting points about greed, privilege and class." Plot David (Leslie Phillips) and Catherine Robinson (Geraldine McEwan) have inherited a large but rundown country house. David suggests they now have room to increase their family beyond their son, but, after a number of his previous business ventures have failed, his wife demurs. However, she does agree to his idea to use the house as a summer holiday home for the children of the wealthy. By advertising in The Times, they attract a number of customers, and hire a matron (June Jago) and a cook (Joan Hickson), but immediately fall foul of a local councillor, Mrs Spicer (Irene Handl), who wants the local authority to compulsorily purchase the house for a project of her own.