Idealistic serviceman with a Shakespearian background Glenn Ford (as Richard Dadier) gets a job as English teacher to juvenile delinquents in New York City. The crazy kids almost kill Mr. Ford's pretty pregnant wife Anne Francis (as Anne) by overturning a car on her. Ford catches natural born leader Sidney Poitier (as Gregory W. Miller) smoking in the bathroom. When Irish ruffian Vic Morrow (as Artie West) refuses to take his hat off in the classroom, Ford demands, "Take your hat off, boy, before I knock it off!" The first day of school ends with Ford saving tightly-dressed teacher Margaret Hayes (as Lois Hammond) from rape...
School is rough...
After Ford and music loving math teacher Richard Kiley (as Joshua Y. Edwards) get drunk, they are beat up by Mr. Morrow and his gang. Beaten, but declaring, "I've been beaten up, but I'm not beaten," Ford decides the students are worth the trouble - even if they are mixed-up, scared, neglected and lacking in religious or parental guidance...
For a few minutes, you wonder if the film is going to leave acts of rape, serious property damage and brutal assault unpunished. It doesn't help that the main trouble-makers are closer to age 30 than sweet little 16; in the closing scene, Mr. Poitier looks like he's old enough to be teaching his own class in "To Sir, with Love" (1967). But writer/director Richard Brooks effectively takes "Blackboard Jungle" to the edge, and brings it safely home. It is cool to see the villains are (likely) weeded out of the system; their identities are not really much of a secret, by the way, so you don't have to worry about Sidney...
It seems silly today, but this film depicted race in a way that was very much needed.
More interesting, historically, is the bracketing of the film with the song "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley and His Comets. The record had peaked at a modest #23 in May 1954, before the group exploded in popularity with their cover of "Shake, Rattle and Roll" that summer. The earlier hit was re-released (actually, depending on your location, it was never really unavailable for sale) and appended to the film. "Rock Around the Clock" went to #1 for a multi-week stay and sold many millions. It helped promote the link between "rock and roll" and delinquency, but the song has little to do with the film, thematically.
******* Blackboard Jungle (3/19/55) Richard Brooks ~ Glenn Ford, Sidney Poitier, Vic Morrow, Anne Francis
School is rough...
After Ford and music loving math teacher Richard Kiley (as Joshua Y. Edwards) get drunk, they are beat up by Mr. Morrow and his gang. Beaten, but declaring, "I've been beaten up, but I'm not beaten," Ford decides the students are worth the trouble - even if they are mixed-up, scared, neglected and lacking in religious or parental guidance...
For a few minutes, you wonder if the film is going to leave acts of rape, serious property damage and brutal assault unpunished. It doesn't help that the main trouble-makers are closer to age 30 than sweet little 16; in the closing scene, Mr. Poitier looks like he's old enough to be teaching his own class in "To Sir, with Love" (1967). But writer/director Richard Brooks effectively takes "Blackboard Jungle" to the edge, and brings it safely home. It is cool to see the villains are (likely) weeded out of the system; their identities are not really much of a secret, by the way, so you don't have to worry about Sidney...
It seems silly today, but this film depicted race in a way that was very much needed.
More interesting, historically, is the bracketing of the film with the song "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley and His Comets. The record had peaked at a modest #23 in May 1954, before the group exploded in popularity with their cover of "Shake, Rattle and Roll" that summer. The earlier hit was re-released (actually, depending on your location, it was never really unavailable for sale) and appended to the film. "Rock Around the Clock" went to #1 for a multi-week stay and sold many millions. It helped promote the link between "rock and roll" and delinquency, but the song has little to do with the film, thematically.
******* Blackboard Jungle (3/19/55) Richard Brooks ~ Glenn Ford, Sidney Poitier, Vic Morrow, Anne Francis