Directed by Richard Brooks
Well-meaning teacher Glenn Ford begins his first assignment at a tough inner-city school, and discovers he’s ill prepared for the challenges he meets, especially to his faith in human nature and himself. Facing down the cynicism of jaded older teachers and rebellious students, he faces heightening alienation and jeopardy from both sides. A sobering look at a system futilely trying to fix itself from within, Brooks’ film presents a disenchanted postwar America in microcosm–and jolted by a rock-n-roll soundtrack, one of the first in American film.
MGM. Producer: Pandro S. Berman. Screenwriter: Richard Brooks. Cinematographer: Russell Harlan. Editor: Ferris Webster. Cast: Glenn Ford, Anne Francis, Sidney Poitier, Louis Calhern, Margaret Hayes. 35mm, Black and White, 101 min.
