Up The Down Staircase (1967)

An idealistic new teacher (Sandy Dennis) gets a dose of reality when she gets a teaching post in an overcrowded and underfunded inner city school in New York. Burdened with the bureaucracy of paper work and unruly students who don't seem to want to learn, she begins to have second thoughts about teaching. Based on the novel by Bel Kaufman and directed by Robert Mulligan (TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD). Riddled with good intentions, the movie suffers from all the cliches of the "inspirational teacher" genre which is not a particular favorite of mine. If you've seen GOODBYE MR. CHIPS, THE CORN IS GREEN, TO SIR WITH LOVE etc., you've been down this path before. The movie overdoes it. I mean it's the school from Hell with all the students resembling a convention of neanderthals and the incompetent teachers and staff (save Dennis and Ruth White) in desperate need of psychological analyzing themselves. Everything is telegraphed, the student who is going to attempt suicide, the student who is going to sexually assault the teacher, etc. Fortunately, there is Sandy Dennis who manages to rise above all the stereotypes and cliches to keep us interested in the narrative. With Eileen Heckart, Jean Stapleton, Frances Sternhagen, Patrick Bedford, Sorrell Booke, Vinette Carroll and two performances that stand out: Florence Stanley as a guidance counselor and Jeff Howard as a problematic student.