Up the Down Staircase

Sandy Dennis - You are missed!

A by the numbers "white woman in inner city school trying to make a difference" film. Everything happens exactly like it's supposed to and there's no interesting surprises or twists. The most interesting aspect is that the same types of films are still getting made over 40 years later, a testament that nothing has changed. Sandy Dennis is good in the lead despite not having much to work with.

Despite being of the Noble Teacher genre & having the worst score ever, this mostly thoughtful film focuses on how teachers are shackled. Though it does traffic in naivete like "The students just need some1 who'll really listen/trust them" there r no surprise winners here& some students just can't b saved. If nothing else, seeing this film crystalizes the fact that it's been 4 decades of liberal agendas blaming every part of the environment except bad parents & students have only gotten worse.

Sort of a cross between Blackboard Jungle and To Sir With Love--even to the extent of calling her Teach all the time (and having her quit, then decide to stay). Weird score--kind of like attending a Renaissance Faire in places. Relentlessly hammers home the organization-man, constant-paperwork motif. Jungle though was more taut, and kept its focus better; this one dilutes its effect by spreading the stories around, so it ends up seeming like lots of little episodes instead of a couple big ones.

I so loved the book as a youth--still do--but its strongest aspects are completely unfilmable. Pauline Kael: "Sandy Dennis, blinking as if she'd taken pills and been awakened in the middle of the night [...] she reacts confusedly before the situations even develop, but the audience is ahead of her, anyway: this is BLACKBOARD JUNGLE with a woman sweating it out." She goes on to say that, with its many faults, "still, it holds a viewer's attention". And it does.