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By
NICK ZEGARAC
"Blackboard Jungle" (1955)
is director Richard Brooks' watershed effort to
shed light on the slow moral decline of youth in
the inner city. The film stars Glenn Ford as
Richard Dadier -- a high school teacher whose
optimism is sullied when he realizes the teens he
is attempting to impart wisdom on are a bunch of
wolfish reprobates in adolescent sheep's clothing.
Dadier is further disillusioned when he talks to
other school staff, particularly Prof. Kraal
(Basil Ruysdael) and Jim Murdock (Louis Calhern).
They have merely accepted their loss of control in
the classroom and do not seem to mind the fact one
way or the other. After having a baseball hurled
at his head while teaching a history lesson,
Dadier confronts Gregory Miller (Sidney Poitier)
about the rumor that is being spread regarding his
romantic badinage with one of his colleagues.
Miller's tough, and he doesn't deny the
accusation. But is he really the one responsible
for letting Dadier's wife, Anne (Anne Francis) in
on the secret?
Dated by today's standards, the film is a
fascinating time capsule on juvenile delinquency
-- then perceived as an emerging evil in the
public school system -- and later, along with a
basis in Romeo & Juliet became the gestation for
'West Side Story.' The film also introduced rock
and rollers to Bill Haley's 'Rock Around The
Clock' -- the song went on to become number one on
hit parades across the country. Glenn Ford's
central performance is among his best. He's cold,
steely-eyed and aloof, harboring just the right
amount of sarcasm to pit his considerable brain
against the unyielding brawn of his sullen motley
crew of students. In a very early performance in
his career, Poitier illustrates the hallmarks of
why he later went on to have such a brilliant
career. And the story, ironically, foreshadows
Poitier's stepping into the authoritarian shoes of
an educator in "To Sir with Love" a decade later.
The DVD from Warner is a beautiful B&W
presentation. The grayscale has been impeccably
rendered with deep, rich blacks, very clean whites
and a minimal amount of film grain. The original
theatrical aspect ratio of 1:85:1 has been
slightly cropped for DVD to 1:78:1 but the loss of
screen information is limited and excusable. The
audio is original mono but presented at a
listening level that will surely please.
Occasionally dialogue sounds a tad muffled and
unnatural sounding. Extras include a jumble of
audio commentaries from Jamie Farr, Paul Muzursky,
Peter Ford and Idel Freeman, a cartoon and the
film's original theatrical trailer. |
