Up the Down Staircase

Up the Down Staircase is a 1967 American drama film directed by Robert Mulligan and starring Oscar winners Sandy Dennis and Eileen Heckart, along with Patrick Bedford and Jean Stapleton. The plot concerns the first, trying assignment for a young, idealistic teacher. Tad Mosel wrote the screenplay adaptation of the novel of the same name by Bel Kaufman. This was one of two last films, along with The Family Way, 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 Cast Sandy Dennis as Sylvia Barrett, English teacher Patrick Bedford as Paul Barringer, English teacher and unpublished writer Eileen Heckart as Henrietta Pastorfield, English teacher Ruth White as Beatrice Schachter, teacher and soon Miss Barrett's mentor Jean Stapleton as Sadie Finch, school office staff Sorrell Booke as Dr. Bester, school principal Roy Poole as Mr McHabe, school vice-principal Florence Stanley as Ella Friedenberg, guidance counselor Vinnette Carroll as The Mother; student Roy Atkins' guardian, Mrs. Lewes Frances Sternhagen as Charlotte Wolf, school librarian