Based on the novel by James Hilton, this film projects the avuncular public schoolmaster who always used the cane reluctantly; in essence, the motto was that this will hurt me more than it will hurt you. The canings were always shown discreetly off scene. In this case all we see is the shadow of the hand and cane rising and falling. For all that it is probably more realistic than those films which portrayed so many masters as crazed with desire to flog away like a maniac.