Up the Down Staircase

Up the Down Staircase (1967) starring Sandy Dennis. Sylvia Barrett (Dennis) is a new teacher at an inner-city school who struggles to get through to her students. Sound familiar? It seems that the high-school teaching environment is a rich one for book and movie plots. Maybe this one was original in 1967, but it seems all too dated and hackneyed now. Dennis is appealing in the starring role, and I was pleased to see Jean Stapleton in a supporting role. The film is memorable most of all for a scene in which a student, having sent a love note to one of her teachers, is made to stand and listen while he corrects the grammar of the note, without responding to its content. (The student, Alice, then jumps out of a window. What finally happens to her, we never find out.) (The movie has English subtitles for the hearing impaired, but they are a bit hard to read.) Grade: B