''Up the Down Staircase'' is a 1967 American

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by

Robert Mulligan Robert Patrick Mulligan (August 23, 1925 – December 20, 2008) was an American director and producer. He is best known for his humanist dramas, including ''To Kill a Mockingbird (film), To Kill a Mockingbird'' (1962), ''Summer of '42'' (1971), ' ...

and starring Oscar winners

Sandy Dennis Sandra Dale Dennis (April 27, 1937 – March 2, 1992) was an American actress. She made her film debut in the drama ''Splendor in the Grass'' (1961). For her performance in the comedy-drama film ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'' (1966), she rec ...

and

Eileen Heckart Anna Eileen Heckart ( Herbert; March 29, 1919 – December 31, 2001) was an American stage and screen actress whose career spanned nearly 60 years. Early life Heckart was born Anna Eileen Herbert in Columbus, Ohio. The daughter of Esther (), w ...

, along with

Patrick Bedford Patrick Bedford (May 30, 1932, Dublin, Ireland – November 20, 1999; New York City, United States) was an Irish stage and television actor. He began his career in the 1950s at the Gate Theatre in Dublin then under the direction of Hilton Ed ...

and

Jean Stapleton Jean Stapleton (born Jeanne Murray; January 19, 1923 – May 31, 2013) was an American character actor, character actress of stage, television and film. Stapleton was best known for playing Edith Bunker, the perpetually optimistic and dev ...

. The plot concerns the first, trying assignment for a young, idealistic teacher.

Tad Mosel Tad Mosel (May 1, 1922 – August 24, 2008) was an American playwright and one of the leading dramatists of hour-long teleplay genre for live television during the 1950s. He received the 1961 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play '' All the Way H ...

wrote the

screenplay ''ScreenPlay'' is a television drama anthology series broadcast on BBC2 between 9 July 1986 and 27 October 1993. Background After single-play anthology series went off the air, the BBC introduced several showcases for made-for-television, fe ...

adaptation of the novel of the same name by Bel Kaufman. This was one of two last films, along with ''

The Family Way ''The Family Way'' is a 1966 British comedy-drama film about the marital difficulties of a young newlywed couple living in a crowded house with the husband's family. Based on Bill Naughton's play '' All in Good Time'' (1963), the film began lif ...

'', released by Warner Bros. Pictures before the company was rebranded as Warner Bros.-Seven Arts in July 1967.

Plot

The film's title is a reference to the double staircases inside a public, overcrowded New York City high school of 3,000 students of various races and ethnicities, many of whom are troubled and disadvantaged; a few are gang members. Sylvia Barrett, fresh out of graduate school, has just been hired to teach English but is disheartened by the school's burdensome regulations, daily reporting and other paperwork. Her students are often disruptive and undisciplined. The students include Alice, who has a crush on a male teacher and narrowly avoids death after jumping out a school window; Linda, who is physically abused by her father; Joe, who is on court probation and has a high I.Q. but a mixed academic record, testing Sylvia's patience; and Roy, who works nights and falls asleep in class. Some of the teaching staff have an antagonistic relationship with the students and disagree with Sylvia's calm, quiet approach, but she intends to infuse the students with learning and skills to succeed after high school. She finally succeeds in engaging her students in a lively discussion about classic literature (comparing "the best of times ... the worst of times" to their own lives), followed by a lively mock trial, as she ponders and ultimately decides against resignation.

Cast

as Sylvia Barrett, English teacher *

as Paul Barringer, English teacher and unpublished writer *

as Henrietta Pastorfield, English teacher * Ruth White as Beatrice Schachter, teacher and soon Miss Barrett's mentor *

as Sadie Finch, school office staff *

Sorrell Booke Sorrell Booke (January 4, 1930 – February 11, 1994) was an American actor who performed on stage, screen, and television. He acted in more than 100 plays and 150 television shows, and is best known for his role as corrupt politician Jefferson ...

as Dr. Bester, school principal * Roy Poole as Mr McHabe, school vice-principal *

Florence Stanley Florence Stanley (born Florence Schwartz; July 1, 1924 – October 3, 2003) was an American actress of stage, film, and television. She is best known for her roles in ''Barney Miller'' (1975–1977) and its spinoff ''Fish'' (1977-1978), ''My T ...

as Ella Friedenberg, guidance counselor *

Vinnette Carroll Vinnette Justine Carroll (March 11, 1922 – November 5, 2002) was an American playwright, actress, and theatre director. She was the first African-American woman to direct on Broadway, with her 1972 production of the musical ''Don't Bother Me, I ...

as The Mother; student Roy Atkins' guardian, Mrs. Lewes *

Frances Sternhagen Frances Hussey Sternhagen (born January 13, 1930) is an American actress; she has appeared on- and off-Broadway, in movies, and on TV since the 1950s.Joy, Car"Frances Sternhagen in Talks to Join Company of Broadway Magnolias" Broadway.com, Nov ...

as Charlotte Wolf, school librarian

Production

Sandy Dennis took the role of Sylvia Barrett after winning an

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in ''

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'' is a play by Edward Albee first staged in October 1962. It examines the complexities of the marriage of a middle-aged couple, Martha and George. Late one evening, after a university faculty party, they receive ...

'' The film was entered into the

5th Moscow International Film Festival The 5th Moscow International Film Festival was held from 5 to 20 July 1967. The Grand Prix was shared between the Soviet film '' The Journalist'', directed by Sergei Gerasimov and the Hungarian film ''Father'', directed by István Szabó. The fe ...

, at which Dennis won the award for Best Actress. Outdoor street scenes were filmed on 1st Ave. and East 100th Street in

East Harlem East Harlem, also known as Spanish Harlem or and historically known as Italian Harlem, is a neighborhood of Upper Manhattan, New York City, roughly encompassing the area north of the Upper East Side and bounded by 96th Street to the south, F ...

. The outdoor school scenes were filmed on the same block at

Julia de Burgos Julia de Burgos García (February 17, 1914 – July 6, 1953) was a Puerto Rican poet. As an advocate of Puerto Rican independence, she served as Secretary General of the Daughters of Freedom, the women's branch of the Puerto Rican Nationa ...

Junior High School 99 at 410 East 100th St. (now the Renaissance Charter High School for Innovation). Some indoor school and classroom scenes were filmed at the former Haaren High School on 59th St. and 10th Ave. (today's

John Jay College of Criminal Justice The John Jay College of Criminal Justice (John Jay) is a public college focused on criminal justice and located in New York City. It is a senior college of the City University of New York (CUNY). John Jay was founded as the only liberal arts c ...

) and at a production studio in Chelsea. Filming took place during the summer of 1966 during a record-breaking heat wave in New York City. Outdoor scenes depicting snowstorms were actually filmed while the temperature was as high as 95 °F. The actors portraying the students were non-professionals, and most were high-school students themselves. Jeff Howard, 20 years old, was a Long Island University student. Jose Rodriguez, the quiet student who blossoms during the trial sequence, was a 17-year-old student at the New York School of Printing, now the

High School of Graphic Communication Arts The High School of Graphic Communication Arts (H.S.G.C.A.) is a vocational high school located in the Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, Hell's Kitchen section of Manhattan in New York City. Founded in 1925 as the New York School of Printing, the school i ...

. Ellen O'Mara, who plays a lovestruck student, was also 17 and attended Washington Irving High School (now known as the Washington Irving Campus). Salvatore Rasa, playing the student-body president of the fictional high school, was 17 and had that role in real life at Bishop Ford High School.

Reception

In a contemporary review, ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' critic

Bosley Crowther Francis Bosley Crowther Jr. (July 13, 1905 – March 7, 1981) was an American journalist, writer, and film critic for ''The New York Times'' for 27 years. His work helped shape the careers of many actors, directors and screenwriters, though his ...

wrote: "For the most part, this is a beautifully balanced, fluid film, with engrossing contemporary material and excellent performances." He praised Dennis's performance, writing that she "... walks away with the show, giving a vivid performance of emotional range and depth. Her beaming enthusiasms, her startled hesitations, her grave alarms, her humors and indignations and her air of intense sincerity acquaint us with a genuine, loving person we can believe wants to find her pupils' wounds and, what's more, try to heal them – which she can't, and that's the sadness of it all." ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' critic

Charles Champlin Charles Davenport Champlin (March 23, 1926 – November 16, 2014) was an American film critic and writer. Life and career Champlin was born in Hammondsport, New York. He attended high school in Camden, New York, working as a columnist for the ...

called the film a "very, very, very good movie" and wrote: "It is at once warm and chilling, tough and sentimental, greatly moving, notably honest, improvisationally fresh, wryly and ribaldly funny, disturbing yet infused with a quantity of optimism no larger than the human heart. It is a work of fiction with the feeling of a documentary, in the best sense of giving us real insights into ourselves and others." Champlin and others noted the striking similarities between ''Up the Down Staircase'' and ''

To Sir, with Love ''To Sir, with Love'' is a 1967 British drama film that deals with social and racial issues in an inner city school. It stars Sidney Poitier and features Christian Roberts, Judy Geeson, Suzy Kendall and singer Lulu making her film debut. Jam ...

'', films released within one month of each other. He wrote: "The accents are different, but, obviously, antiquated school buildings, inadequate budgets and despairing faculty are ironic common bonds with our ally across the Atlantic. The problems and resolutions are remarkably similar on both sides of the ocean, bespeaking nothing more and nothing less than the universality of the problems. ... What finally unifies them is their joint indictment of

pedagogic Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political and psychological development of learners. Pedagogy, taken as ...

attitudes which push methods and merchandise so unrelated to students' real interests and needs as to spark only rebellion or apathy." On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds a rating of 78% from 41 reviews.

References

External links