Review: Blackboard Jungle

Idealistic but no-nonsense teacher Glenn Ford arrives at an urban high school to take a teaching position. Unfortunately, the school seems mostly populated by disinterested and disaffected youths, if not outright hoodlums like Artie West (Vic Morrow), their sneering leader. Anne Francis plays Ford’s pregnant wife, Sidney Poitier is an intelligent but hardened African-American student whom Ford tries to get through to (he’s no thug, just a smart-arse not looking to do Ford any favours), Louis Calhern plays a cynical teacher who despises the students, Maggie Hayes is the hot teacher who arouses the wrong kind of interest in the students, and Richard Kiley plays a nerdy, ineffectual maths teacher. Among the students are such familiar faces as Rafael Campos, Paul Mazursky, and even Jamie ‘Cpl. Klinger’ Farr, as the class ‘dummy’, so to speak.

 

If you have to see one 50s juvenile delinquent film (or one ‘teacher vs. lower-class teenage gang’ movie for that matter), make it this 1955 film from eclectic writer-director Richard Brooks (“In Cold Blood”, “Elmer Gantry”, “The Professionals”, “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”). Some of the dorky hoodlums make this one seem a tad like “To Sir With Love” meets “West Side Story” at times, with all the ‘Daddy-O’ nonsense, but for the most part, it holds up pretty well all things considered.

 

Pioneering in its use of rock music on the soundtrack (Bill Haley’s iconic ‘Rock Around the Clock’ starts us off, becoming a huge hit song), and featuring a typically sturdy lead performance by Glenn Ford, who makes sure this never gets too silly. The wonderful Louis Calhern and a young-ish Sidney Poitier steal their every scene (even if it’s weird to see him play a student five years after he played a doctor in “No Way Out”), whilst Vic Morrow (one of several debutants, he beat out Steve McQueen for the part) overcomes the fact that he’s obviously too old for the part (albeit younger than 28 year-old Poitier) by being the one hoodlum with the necessary gravitas, presence and threat. The others are all dorks. 50s juvenile delinquents in movies for the most part are pretty laughable when viewed today.

 

One thing I really liked about the film is that Poitier’s race is only a minor issue in the film. I love “A Patch of Blue” and “In the Heat of the Night”, don’t get me wrong, but I was glad to see at least one of his films didn’t turn it into the biggest issue of the film. And despite all the ‘Daddy-O’ “West Side Story” hooligan nonsense, Brooks manages to build a genuine sense of unease, especially with Ford having to walk through the crowd of students at one point. Admittedly, you can see what’s going to happen to Richard Kiley the moment he talks about his precious record collection, but Kiley is nonetheless good as a man who would dearly love to teach this kids, if only they cared to learn. Unfortunately, one of the things this film definitely gets across is that these kids just don’t care to learn. It’s probably the one thing in the film that is still sadly most relevant today. 20 years ago or so when I was in high school, it certainly seemed to hold true for many students. The film has dated a bit, but it’s not useless or ineffective.

 

Several of the performances are strong (Ford is especially strong), and the soundtrack/score is pretty good too, if a bit loud. It’s pretty solid stuff from Mr. Brooks, and he earned an Oscar nomination for the screenplay, based on a book by Evan Hunter (a former teacher who loosely based the story on his own experiences teaching in the South Bronx area).

 

Rating: B-