UP THE DOWN STAIRCASE

US, 1966, 120 minutes, Colour.
Sandy Dennis, Ruth White, Patrick Bedford, Roy Poole, Eileen Heckart, Sorrel Books, Ellen O' Mara.
Directed by Robert Mulligan.

Up the Down Staircase is the film version of Bel Kaufman's bestseller of 1965. It takes up the problems of a difficult school in New York and a young teacher's first experience there: her idealism, her disappointments and finally her breaking through barriers to communicate. At times the school looks like a caricature, but busy schools like this must look like a caricature to the outside observer until the realities of the persons inside are discovered. This is what happens here. The stories and interactions of characters are somewhat predictable but are moving and entertaining in the film.

Up the Down Staircase invited comparison with To Sir With Love which was released soon after and was far more successful at the box-office because of Sidney Poitier. This film can stand on its own feet quite well and is probably much more 'realistic' in its approach, handling of the problems and its solutions than To Sir With Love.

Sandy Dennis appeared in this just after her Oscar-winning performance in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? She received an award for this film in Moscow. She has since made The Fox, Sweet November, A Touch of Love, The Out-of-Towners?. Audiences divide over liking her as she has a number of acting and facial mannerisms. The supporting cast are mainly from the New York stage. Ellen O'Mara, as Alice Blake, was voted best supporting actress for 1967 by the association of top American critics. Director Robert Mulligan has a delicate flair for humanising problem situations, for instance To Kill a Mockingbird, Love with the Proper Stranger, The Pursuit of Happiness, Summer of '42.

1. What did the name of the film suggest - especially in the context of the running of a school?

2. How did the first 15 minutes or so of the film create an impression of a busy school on the first day of classes? Was this a caricature? Do you think schools would be as busy and as rushed as this? Do you think some schools would be worse?

3. Calvin Coolidge was a problem school. First impressions of the students there - by their expressions, clothes, manner of acting: note the mixed race problem with Irish, Spanish and Middle European names, the percentage of blacks and whites?

4. First impressions of the teachers? Were they caricatured too much? Impressions of school organisation and bureaucracy - the numbers of forms, bells etc?

5. What kind of a teacher was Sylvia Barrett? Were you in sympathy with her as she started her career and yet seemed to be getting nowhere? What should she have done to have got better results sooner?

6. Discuss some of the other teachers as teachers, as persons, as people dedicated to a work of forming persons:

• Dr Bester: his assembly speech, the staff meeting and the plans for the building, his supervision of Miss Barrett's class, his handling of Mr Barringer after Alice's attempted suicide, his views on the school and exposing the children to education as he tried to persuade Miss Barrett to stay.
• Beatrice Shooter; her 16 years at the school, her perseverance and trust; her talk to Sylvia about the block - where the children spend 18 hours a day, the odds for success at school, the children's last chance and possibly the teacher's last chance; her trying to persuade Sylvia to stay by talking about the polite attention she would get at a private school, the love without risks.
• Mr Barringer: charming externals; cynical, his writing - about another world from that in which he lived; his reading of Sylvia's suggestions; his treatment of Alice at the dance and her letter; his explanation of his action to Dr Bester; his cynical intrusion into Sylvia's class.
• Henrietta Pastorfield: miking life pleasant for the students; her crush on the boy.
• The Psychologist: her CC's etc., yet her putting a generation's work into her classifying, her appreciation of Sylvia's remarks.
• The Nurse: the rules about wounds and giving the children tea.
• The Librarian: interested only in books and tidiness.
• Mr. McHabe: was he a good deputy principal - always on the job (the school was chaos before he came); his philosophy of fear in education; was he feelingless? Why did he do his job? Comment on the detail of his method, e.g. supervising, corridors, the dance - were they realistic?

7. Discuss the principal students, their needs as persons and in the school, their problems, their limited vision of themselves and life: Alice Blake, Carol (Carmelita) and her friendship for Alice, Rusty O'Brien, Eddie Williams, Jose Rodriguez ("Me" and his acting as the judge), Harry (and his mother's intrusive visit on parents' night), Roy (and his mother's talk on parents' 'night), Linda, Lou, Joe Perroni (why did he underachieve, why did he have such chips on his shoulder; why did he think sex was Miss Barrett's only motivation?)

8. How did Sylvia Barrett handle these children's problems? Well? Was she correct in her attitudes to Mr McCabe?, e.g. in her defence of Joe Perroni, (she reported him about the knife, stood up for him as regards the exam)? Should she have talked to Alice - what else could she have done there?

9. How were the class discussions on "A Tale of Two Cities" and the trial about Silas Marner the high points in the film?

10. What did you learn about the nature of the teaching profession, its difficulties, its creativity, its dedication, its rewards?

11. Was Sylvia Barrett a born teacher? What is a born teacher?

12. Was the film too optimistic? Was it joyful? Was it sentimental?