Bel Kaufman's book concerning the frazzled first term for an idealistic young schoolteacher in a tough, underfunded New York high school becomes literate, if unexciting dramatic film. Sandy Dennis (indeed frazzled, but with a firm jaw) slowly gains control of her homeroom, which is full of the usual rabble rousers and teenage clichés: the apple-polisher, the quiet kid awaiting a breakthrough, the lonely poetry-lover, the tough kid in his leather jacket, the racial hothead, the class clown, et al. Those in the administration and faculty are predictable cut-outs as well, and the actors (though well-cast) cannot overcome their overly-pointed vignettes with such facile dialogue (as with the librarian complaining about an overdue book checked out by a student who attempted suicide). Once our heroine announces her intended resignation, all we have left to wait for is one student to tell her she's made a difference. It's terribly well-meaning, but not very cognizant of honest human behavior. We can chart Dennis' progress and growth as a teacher, but we never get to know her personally (and this seems deliberate). One can easily read a book while the film is on and still catch all the programmed nuances it carefully slips in. **1/2 from ****
Review of Up the Down Staircase
