Up the Down Staircase (1967)

Director:

Robert Mulligan

Writers:

Bel Kaufman (novel)
Tad Mosel (screenplay)

Release Date:

19 July 1967 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Simple words that start a war: "Good morning. My name is Miss Barrett. I am your Home Room teacher..."

Plot:

The experiences of a young female English teacher in an inner-city New York high school.

Plot Keywords:

Teacher | New York | Student | Book | Class

Awards:

1 win & 2 nominations

Cast

Sandy Dennis	...	Sylvia Barrett
Patrick Bedford	...	Paul Barringer
Eileen Heckart	...	Henrietta Pastorfield
Ruth White	...	Beatrice Schacter
Jean Stapleton	...	Sadie Finch
Sorrell Booke	...	Dr. Bestor
Roy Poole	...	James J. Mc Habe
Florence Stanley	...	Ella Friedenberg
Vinnette Carroll	...	The Mother
Janice Mars	...	Miss Gordon
Loretta Leversee	...	Social Studies Teacher
John Callahan
Denis Fay
Otto Lomax
Martha Greenhouse	...	Albert Kagan

Runtime:

USA:124 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-12 | Sweden:11

Filming Locations:

El Barrio, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Park Place Production

Trivia:

This movie was filmed in a real live New York City school building. While many people claim that it was filmed in Hell's Kitchen at John Jay College, several landmarks suggest that it was filmed in El Barrio, a section of Manhattan near Spanish Harlem, at J.H.S. #99.

Goofs:

Factual errors: During the opening montage establishing the first day of school in September in a New York high school, several shots were obviously filmed in dead of winter with extras in heavy coats, gray skies, etc. contrasting wildly with scenes of sunny skies and lightweight costumes of main characters.

Quotes:

Sylvia Barrett: If you deny what you know, or what you are, or where you are, you deny the simplest part of being alive, and then you die.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "The Replacements: Hollywoodn't (#3.11)" (2008)

Up the Down Staircase Realistic Schoolhouse Dealings ***

Sandy Dennis was realistic as the young idealistic teacher trying to cope in a traditional urban setting in "Up the Down Staircase," based on Bel Kaufman's best seller.

You really have to be a teacher or at least know one to have any idea of what is going on in our public schools.

Jean Stapleton's Sadie Finch was perfect. As the school secretary, she thought she ran the place. She literally did being constantly on the intercom stating to ignore the continuously ringing fire alarms.

To this very day, sadly, there is no solution to the problems of urban education. We try this program, this initiative, this idea-but nothing really works, when you have groups of students dedicated to the belief that nobody learns when they're around in school.