Themes: High School Life, Kids in Trouble, Teachers and Students
Main Cast: Glenn Ford, Sidney Poitier, Anne Francis, Louis Calhern, Vic Morrow
Release Year: 1955
Country: US
Run Time: 101 minutes
MPAA Rating: NR
Plot
In this gritty urban drama, war veteran Richard Dadier (Glenn Ford) wants to begin his career as a teacher and is given an assignment at a boys high school in inner-city New York. However, he soon discovers the school is overrun by delinquents, led by Artie West (Vic Morrow), an insolent hood who likes to call Richard "Mr. Daddy-O." Artie and his gang steal, destroy property, refuse to respect authority, and threaten the female teachers with rape. While most of the faculty have given up and meekly let the delinquents do what they want, Dadier is determined to bring order back to his classroom, even after Artie's thugs threaten Richard's pregnant wife. Keep your eyes peeled for a bit part by Jameel Farah, years before he would change his name to Jamie Farr. Blackboard Jungle was also the first major studio film to use rock & roll on the soundtrack; the film's success kick-started sales of "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley & His Comets, which helped to spark the rock & roll boom of the 1950s. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
Blackboard Jungle has been tainted somewhat by the countless imitators that followed it. It's difficult to see this movie in context as the shocking "exposé" that it felt like in 1955. Compared to the latest "remakes," like Stand and Deliver and Dangerous Minds, the shocking urban delinquents in Jungle seem more Happy Days than street gang. But in its time, Blackboard Jungle, along with Rebel Without a Cause (also 1955) and The Wild One (1954), showed the mainstream public a scary and unfamiliar fringe of the youth movement. Even without the historical context, this is still a fine drama with excellent performances. Vic Morrow (as Artie West -- a tough guy named Artie?) and the impressive Sidney Poitier are both remembered for their quality performances as two of the students, but it is Glenn Ford who holds the movie together. Ford, who was at about the height of his popularity when this picture came out, draws on his past roles in Westerns and noir thrillers to remain resolute while letting just enough of the menace get to him to be human. Writer/director Richard Brooks made a number of excellent films between the mid-'50s and the mid-'70s, but surprisingly he was never awarded an Academy Award for his directing. He did win an Oscar for his scripting of Elmer Gantry. ~ Brendon Hanley, All Movie Guide
Joel Freeman - First Assistant Director, Richard Brooks - Director, Ferris Webster - Editor, Charles Wolcott - Composer (Music Score), Randall Duell - Production Designer, Cedric Gibbons - Production Designer, Russell Harlan - Cinematographer, Pandro S. Berman - Producer, Richard Brooks - Screenwriter, Bill Haley - Musical Performer, Johnny Grande - Musical Performer, Evan Hunter - Book Author
Richard Dadier (Glenn Ford) is a teacher at North Manual High School, an inner-city school where many of the pupils, led by an African American student, Gregory Miller (Sidney Poitier), frequently engage in anti-social behavior. Dadier challenges both staff and pupils but the conflict results in anonymous phone call threats against his family. Dadier suspects Artie West (Vic Morrow) as the one making the calls, and challenges him on this.
Cultural impact
Music and teen culture
The film has also been credited with sparking the Rock and Roll revolution by featuring Bill Haley & His Comets's '"Rock Around the Clock", initially a B-side, over the film's opening credits, at the start of the movie, in an instrumental version in the middle of the film, and at the close of the movie, establishing that song as an instant classic. It was the placing of that song in these four strategic spots in the movie by director Richard Brooks that arguably led to the explosion of rock and roll as a musical, cultural, and social phenomenon. "Rock Around the Clock" would reach number one on the Billboard charts where it would stay for eight weeks and sell millions of copies. This was arguably the Big Bang for the emergence of rock and roll. After this climactic moment, rock and roll became the dominant musical genre in the U.S. The music led to a huge teenage audience for the film: their exuberance sometimes overflowed into violence and vandalism at screenings.[1] In this sense, it has been seen as marking the start of a period of visible teenage rebellion in the late 20th century.
The film marked a watershed in the United Kingdom. When shown at a South London Cinema in Elephant and Castle in 1956 the teenage Teddy boy audience began to riot, tearing up seats and dancing in the aisles.[2] After that riots took place around the country wherever the film was shown.[3]
In March 2005, the 50th anniversary of the release of the film, and the subsequent rise in popularity of Rock and Roll, was marked by a series of "Rock is Fifty" celebrations in Los Angeles and New York City, involving the surviving members of the original Bill Haley & His Comets. The film itself made its North American DVD debut on May 10, 2005.
Genre
Blackboard Jungle was the first of what would become a popular genre: the film in which an idealistic teacher is confronted with a class of cynical teenagers, who have disengaged from conventional schooling. As so often in later films, issues of race and class lie at the heart of the dynamics. Subsequent films that exploited the theme include:
To Sir, with Love (1967; starring Poitier as a black teacher in a white school),
The title Blackboard Jungle was also the name of a 1990s Irish TV quiz show. The show featured two teams of secondary school pupils and was hosted by Ray D'Arcy.
The title Blackboard Jungle was also the name of a 1980s Hair Metal group based in L.A.
