Flash Harry (St Trinian's)
Henry Cuthbert Edwards aka Flash Harry is a fictional character from the St. Trinian's series of films who first appears in the 1954 The Belles of St Trinian's and who may also be a spiv. The term refers to "an ostentatious, loudly-dressed, and usually ill-mannered man". Sir Malcolm Sargent was also (and earlier) nicknamed "Flash Harry".
In the St Trinian's movies, Harry is a long-term associate of the girl pupils, a Cockney involved in all sorts of shady dealings. His father sold racecards and, when he was 12, Harry himself was employed as a boot polisher by Miss Fritton, headmistress of St Trinian's. As an adult, Harry is one of the few whom the pupils trust: he helps to bottle and sell their gin, distilled in the school chemistry lab, and places bets on race horses for them. Harry also runs the St Trinian's Matrimonial Agency for the teenage Sixth Form girls, setting them up with wealthy men. He even runs a betting scam of his own.
By the time Amber Spottiswood (Dora Bryan) becomes headmistress, Harry's official connection to the school is as "chairman of the board of governors" and he earns money as a costermonger while the school is closed. He sets up a betting shop on the school grounds under the name Harry Hackett Ltd and takes bets from locals and pupils.
Harry appears to be quite well known in the criminal community: another crook (Lionel Jeffries) referring to him as "riff-raff".
Read more about Flash Harry (St Trinian's): Portrayers
Famous quotes containing the words flash and/or harry:
“So, she will never leap up that way again, with the yellow flash of
a mountain lion’s long shoot!”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“People named John and Mary never divorce. For better or for worse, in madness and in saneness, they seem bound together for eternity by their rudimentary nomenclature. They may loathe and despise one another, quarrel, weep, and commit mayhem, but they are not free to divorce. Tom, Dick, and Harry can go to Reno on a whim, but nothing short of death can separate John and Mary.”
—John Cheever (1912–1982)