JasparLamarCrabb A bit didactic but nonetheless entertaining film starring Sandy Dennis as a new teacher at an inner city high school. Dennis faces the standard juvenile delinquents and then some: the threatening thug; the homely, suicidal girl; the parent-less teen who actually cares; the portly know-it-all. Director Robert Mulligan confines the lion's share of the action to the school (Grover Cleveland High School in the film; three different NYC schools in real life) so the focus is really on the acting, which is mostly good and occasionally superb. Your tolerance of Dennis's affectations will determine how you feel about her performance but the supporting cast is a terrific collection of New York character actors. Jean Stapelton, Eileen Heckart, Sorrell Booke, Florence Stanley (surprising as an unusually efficient guidance counselor), Roy Poole as the less than sympathetic principal, and Ruth White as Dennis's most realistic co-worker. Patrick Bedford gives an exceptional performance as an English teacher with dreams of being a real writer and Ellen O'Mara is a standout as the tragic student in love with him.

jlarkin5 Rivals "To Sir, With Love" (released around the same time) as the best teacher film of all time. The difference: Sandy Dennis.Dennis was one of those actors they don't make anymore (or at least don't showcase in Hollywood in 2007). She was strange, quirky, not conventionally pretty and she had that quality a lot of new female teachers have-that deer in the headlights look that makes the viewer root for her to make it "work" with those tough students.The story is strong with some good subplots with the troubled students. It is dated but I would say the same issues facing Dennis here face contemporary teachers.I take Dennis to Robin Williams in "Dead Poets Society" anyday.

dataconflossmoor If you ever stopped to think about it, what is life really about? Making a difference!!! Who likes adversity? On the other hand, adversity makes you aware of the fact that you are alive... For teachers, there are thousands and thousands of students out there who have a subconscious reliance on them!! Students bring on a bevy of inhibitions, fears, and acute human inadequacies which teachers have thrust upon them and become burdened with!! Kids have problems, as do adults, teenage problems are just different from adult problems, nonetheless, we all have problems, problems are what make us human!! Without challenges, we lack a rudimentary purpose!! This is what the movie "Up the Down Staircase" is all about!!Sandy Dennis plays the brand new teacher who is emotionally barraged by a bunch of reprobates (students) from the Bronx!! Who would want such a job? Evaluating Miss Barrett's aggregate circumstances, back in 1967, teachers made so little money! In compounding this utterly deplorable situation, now descends the grief, the lack of funding for basic materials, the violence, the faculty/student apathy, and the overall administrative despondence!! Such an obstacle course makes the job of teaching in the inner city a living nightmare!!When does all of it end? Why doesn't everyone who is teaching in this inner city rat trap just get the hell out of there, and focus on preserving their sanity!!! Miss Barrett (Sandy Dennis) quickly becomes an advocate of throwing in the towel!! Now strikes the proverbial and humanistic nerve cord which enlightens her, and makes her realize that at some level she has made a difference.. If you can communicate with one student at some time, and be told that you made a difference in their lives, you have been rewarded.. If you are able to conceptualize that a quality in a student is not ordinary because it is extraordinary, then you have attained a metamorphosis in human behavior that sparks a coveted gratification!!!Such a fate affected Sandy Dennis, and such a movie "Up the Down Staircase" articulated the importance of such an accomplishment!!! The director, Robert Mulligan ("To Kill A Mockingbird") is one of the greatest directors in Hollywood!! The movie, "Up the Down Staircase" is very powerful in it's ideological premise!! Sandy Dennis is remarkable in this film, of course, how can she top her performance in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf"? Nevertheless, Sandy Dennis was superb in this movie!! The supporting actors and actresses in the film "Up the Down Staircase" did an excellent job as well!!! I very much endorse the idea of seeing this movie, definitely!!! The underlying realization of necessary challenges has a very intellectual cohesiveness in this film!! A must for educators!!! Without a doubt, one of the better efforts of the cinema!!

Neil Doyle Watching SANDY DENNIS cope with the things any schoolteacher has to deal with when working in an overcrowded city school in the worst part of town, has to seem familiar to all those who've seen GLENN FORD face the same kind of hurdles in the much earlier THE BLACKBOARD JUNGLE.This time the schoolteacher is a woman, a very naive, well-intended schoolteacher who wants to bring out the best in a classroom full of bored misfits who would rather be anywhere else than school. It's based on a rather sketchy novel by Bel Kaufman, but Tad Mosel's screenplay pulls all the strands together nicely and puts the central focus squarely on Miss Dennis (where it belongs) and her crusade to bring meaning into the lives of some needy students.Dennis is entirely up to the demands of such a role and gives one of her best portrayals. Eileen Heckart and Jean Stapleton do well in supporting roles but it's Dennis who must carry the film and she does so with honesty, integrity and her own brand of quirky charm. The school atmosphere is well captured with much of the filming done inside a real city school that serves as Calvin Coolidge High School.Summing up: An altogether winning little film, largely forgotten, that should be more appreciated--still timely and relevant.