Up the Down Staircase (1967)
Simple words that start a war: 'Good morning. My name is Miss Barrett. I am your Home Room teacher...'
Starring Sandy Dennis, Patrick Bedford, Eileen Heckart
Directed by Robert Mulligan
Sylvia Barrett is a rookie teacher at New York's inner-city Calvin Coolidge High: her lit classes are overcrowded, a window is broken, there's no chalk, books arrive late. The administration is concerned mainly with forms and rules (there's an up and and a down staircase); bells ring at the wrong time. Nevertheless, she tries. How she handles the chaos and her despair in her first semester makes up the film: a promising student drops out, another sleeps through class, a girl with a crush on a male teacher gets suicidal, and a bright but troublesome student misunderstands Sylvia's reaching out. A discussion of Dickens, parents' night, and a mock trial highlight the term. Can she make it?
Runtime: 124 min.
Rating: 7.6
DVD
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America
Genres: Drama
Keywords: new york city,based on novel or book,high school,teacher,high school teacher,schoolteacher,english teacher
Cast
Sylvia Barrett
Paul Barringer
Henrietta Pastorfield
Beatrice Schacter
Sadie Finch
Dr. Bester
Mr. McHabe
Ellen Friedenberg
Alice Blake
Joe Ferone
The Mother
Mrs. Kagan
Charlotte Wolf, school librarian
School nurse
Carole Blanca
Linda Rosen
Lou Martin
Harry A. Kagan
Jose Rodriguez
Eddie Williams
Student
Teacher
Student