Product Description

Sylvia Barrett is a rookie teacher with a can-do attitude at New York's inner city Calvin Coolidge High. Crowded classes, broken windows, lack of chalk and books are a few of the problems facing Sylvia, yet she carries on - even as a promising student drops out, another sleeps through class, a girl with a crush on a male teacher gets suicidal, and a bright but troublesome student misunderstands Sylvia's reaching out.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #25432 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2007-11-06
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .25 pounds
• Running time: 124 minutes

Amazon.com
Up the Down Staircase wasn't the first inspirational-teacher movie, but along with To Sir, with Love (also released in 1967), it seemed to set a pattern that gets brushed off every few years: Dangerous Minds, Freedom Writers, etc. etc. And this one still holds up, thanks to the sensitive direction of Robert Mulligan and the central performance by Sandy Dennis. The latter plays an idealistic teacher starting the new term at an inner-city high school (stop me if you've heard this one before), and discovering that the teaching life has as much to do with corralling and motivating kids as it does with rote recitation of facts. All right, it's a familiar tale, but the impeccably authentic approach by Mulligan (To Kill a Mockingbird) and longtime producer (future director) Alan Pakula captures a bracing, semi-documentary feel at times. And then there's Sandy Dennis, fresh from winning a Supporting Actress Oscar for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? the year before. Dennis was a famously polarizing presence in movies of this era; her reliably neurotic Method acting drove some viewers up the wall. Here the style works, as her overmatched but stubborn teacher weathers the usual, so to speak, ups and downs of a school year; Dennis's very fragility shines as a counterpoint to her determined character. --Robert Horton

Customer Reviews

Up the Down Staircase
"Up the Down Staircase" is a wonderful film. It portrays Coolidge High School in New York City, and an idealistic teacher who discovers the harsh realities found in the urban schools in America. Even though it was made in 1967, it still holds true 35 years later. It is a story of courage and triumph. The star is Sandy Dennis, a superb actress whose performance is flawless as the teacher. It also features Eileen Heckart, Ruth White, Jean Stapleton, and Sorrell Booke. This film is a classic masterpeice, and is highly recommended.

Excellent, highly recommended film!
I watched this film for the very first time today and it is incredible. Sandy Dennis was brilliant as a young, idealistic school teacher who is slowly worn down, and ultimately rejuvenated, by her experiences working at an inner-city school. The film has disturbing scenes, happy scenes, sad scenes, and even some funny scenes. Most of all this film is real...it touches your heart and, to anyone who has ever been a teacher or attended a public school, the experiences Sandy Dennis's character has with the school nurse and secretary are hilariously realistic. EXCELLENT FILM!!!!

Sandy Dennis at her best...
Sandy Dennis in her role as high school teacher Sylvia Barrett is truly magnificent!!! She outshines every other actor or actress in the movie. She does not overact - instead, she strikes one by her flawless presentation of an initially overtaxed teacher who develops towards an inspiring person, not only for her pupils, but also for those who watch the film with the intention to become a teacher her- or himself, as I do. What I appreciate especially about Up the down staircase is that with a minimum of special effects or dramatic events, a realistic portrayal of school life is achieved - from the teacher's as well as from the pupil's point of view. Dennis herself ranks among the most underrated Hollywood actresses, but like Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, the film Up the down staircase stands as one of her masterpieces and prove that back in 1992, when she died of ovarian cancer, America lost one of its most gifted and unique actresses.