Blackboard Jungle *** (1955, Glenn Ford, Anne Francis, Louis Calhern) – Classic Movie Review 5669

It is hard now to know from the movie exactly why, but writer-director Richard Brooks’s 1955 film exposé of teen trouble in the classrooms of New York, based on Evan Hunter’s novel, shocked the authorities and the audiences of the day. Supposedly, too, it led to teenage violence in cinemas in many European countries.

On the other hand, it was nominated for four Oscars, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White (Russell Harlan), Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White (Cedric Gibbons, Randall Duell, Edwin B. Willis, Henry Grace) and Best Film Editing (Ferris Webster). There were no wins, though.

It was controversial, and that always sells tickets. The US Ambassador to Italy, Clare Boothe Luce, prevented it from being shown at the Venice Film Festival and a US Senate committee decided it would harm contemporary youth. In the UK, it was rejected for a cinema certificate by the BBFC in March 1955. After it was resubmitted in August 1955, it was cut by around six minutes to remove threatening dialogue and the entire climactic switchblade scene. It was finally passed uncut for video and DVD with a 12 certificate.

But now the movie seems as tame-seeming and mild-mannered as Bill Haley’s rendition of ‘Rock Around the Clock’. If the film is sedate, the performances of Glenn Ford as Richard Dadier, the well-meaning new English teacher at a violent, unruly inner-city school, and Sidney Poitier and Vic Morrow, as his over-age juvenile delinquent pupils Greg Miller and Artie West giving him problems, are on the unpersuasive side. Morrow was 26 and Poitier was 28.

Still, it remains intriguing though, both as drama and as a social document of the time. After all, it is historic as rock ‘n’ roll’s first appearance in a movie.

Also in the cast are Anne Francis as Anne Dadier, Louis Calhern as Jim Murdock, Margaret Hayes, John Hoyt, Richard Kiley, Emile Meyer, Warner Anderson, Basil Ruysdael, Rafael Campos, Paul Mazursky, Dan Terranova, Horace McMahon and Richard Deacon.

Rock Around the Clock is written by James E Myers and Max Freedman, and played by Bill Haley and the Comets. The song was chosen for the titles after it was heard among records owned by Glenn Ford’s son Peter Ford. After it was heard in the movie, it shot to number one on hit parades around the world, and sold an estimated 25 million copies. MGM missed out by buying only the film-use rights.

Hunter based his novel on his experiences as a teacher in New York City’s tough South Bronx area. Hunter said: ‘I thought I was going to give these kids who want to be motor mechanics Shakespeare and they were going to appreciate it and they weren’t buying it. I went home in tears night after night.’ Hunter found a better career as crime writer Ed McBain.

It is the film debut of Jameel Joseph Farah, aka Jamie Farr, Corporal Klinger of TV’s M*A*S*H (215 episodes, 1972-1983). It is also the film debut of Rafael Campos and Vic Morrow.

Not so long after this, Poitier was playing the teacher of troubled students in the similarly themed To Sir, with Love (1967).

Bill Haley and the Comets soon got their own film, Rock Around the Clock (1956) and a sequel Don’t Knock the Rock 1956).

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5669

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