Blackboard Jungle

Blackboard Jungle
Directed by Richard Brooks
Written by Richard Brooks from a novel by Evan Hunter
1955/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Anne Dadier: I was like one of the bad kids in your class. Somebody told me a lie and I believed it. One’s as bad as the other.[/box]

A lot of it doesn’t quite ring true, but this film has nervous energy to burn.

Veteran Richard Dadier (Glenn Ford) has a surprisingly easy time getting a job as an English teacher at North Manual High School.  He quickly discovers the reason.  The students in his class are totally out of control.  Most of them are members of one gang or another.  They don’t like their teacher.  His efforts to instill discipline are met with threats and actual violence.  His fellow teachers have given up completely.

Dadier recognizes Gregory Miller (Sidney Portier) as a natural-born leader and attempts to befriend him but can’t seem to break through to him either.  Between his fears for his pregnant wife and repeated incidents of teacher harrassment, the brave ex-GI seriously considers quitting.  With Louis Cahern as the most blase of the teachers, Richard Kiley as a sensitive jazz-loving rookie, Vic Morrow as the worst of the bad boys , and Anne Francis as Dadier’s wife.

This was the first juvenile delinquent high school movie and was both scandalous and highly profitable in its day.  It is full of talented young actors with plenty of raw power.  The ending was not adequately motivated, the kids are too old, and their behavior is not quite right either.  The movie works any way.

This was also the first film to feature a rock ‘n’ roll song.  According to the commentary, some theaters had to cut the opening credits, which play over “Rock Around the Clock”, because the audiences would dance in the aisles.  Understandable – the song still makes me feel like dancing.

Blackboard Jungle was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of Best Writing, Screenplay; Best Cinematography, Black-and-White; Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White; and Best Film Editing.

Trailer