Rent Up the Down Staircase (1967)
3.7 of 5 from 54 ratings
2h 4min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
New York's Calvin Coolidge High begins the new school year. With no chalk. No books. Too many students. Over clanging bells, the P.A. booms, "Please disregard all bells". It might say, "Please disregard all learning". Academy Award -winner Sandy Dennis stars as an idealistic new teacher in this straight-A movie from Bel Kaufman's beloved best seller. 'To Kill a Mockingbird' producer Alan J. Pakula and director Robert Mulligan memorably bring it to the screen. Eileen Heckart, Ruth White and Jean Stapleton play school staffers. And fresh-faced newcomers from inner-city classrooms portray the students. The result ranks among 'Stand and Deliver' and 'Lean on Me' as one of the best-ever films about the triumph of teaching and learning. - Actors:
- Patrick Bedford, Sandy Dennis, Eileen Heckart, Ruth White, Jean Stapleton, Sorrell Booke, Roy Poole, Florence Stanley, Vinnette Carroll, Janice Mars, Loretta Leversee, John Callahan, Denis Fay, Otto Lomax, Martha Greenhouse, María Landa, Robert Levine, Elena Karam, Frances Sternhagen, Candace Culkin
- Directors:
- Robert Mulligan
- Producers:
- Alan J. Pakula
- Writers:
- Bel Kaufman, Tad Mosel
- Studio:
- Warner
- Genres:
- Classics, Drama
- Collections:
- 10 Films to Watch if You Like Klute, Back to School: Best Films Featuring Teachers, Cinema Paradiso's 2023 Centenary Club: Part 1, Cinema Paradiso's 2025 Centenary Club: July - September, Remembering: A Spring Special
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Reviews (1) of Up the Down Staircase
Could Do Better - Up the Down Staircase review by griggs
Sandy Dennis turns up looking like she’s already lost an argument with the building, and that weary energy does more heavy lifting than the script deserves.
Underneath it all, this is Blackboard Jungle with a fresh coat of chalk dust: broken system, difficult kids with neatly signposted vulnerability, an idealistic teacher walking in expecting a classroom and getting a warzone. Swap in a woman at the front of the room and the dynamic should shift — for a while it does. Dennis brings a jittery, anxious edge, especially around authority and being taken seriously, that Glenn Ford never had to carry. Then the script loses interest and wanders back to the usual inspirational-teacher machinery.
Luckily, the cast keeps the whole thing from tipping over into a filmstrip about civic responsibility. There’s a car-mechanic subplot so familiar I half expected to mark his homework myself.
Decent politics, second-hand drama. Worth it for Dennis — though most of the credit here is for effort, not results.
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