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Up the Down Staircase

Sylvia Barrett is a rookie teacher at New York's inner-city Calvin Coolidge High: her lit classes are overcrowded, a window is broken, there's no chalk, books arrive late. The administration is concerned mainly with forms and rules (there's an up and a down staircase); bells ring at the wrong time. Nevertheless, she tries. How she handles the chaos and her despair in her first semester makes up the film: a promising student drops out, another sleeps through class, a girl with a crush on a male teacher gets suicidal, and a bright but troublesome student misunderstands Sylvia's reaching out. A discussion of Dickens, parents' night, and a mock trial highlight the term. Can she make it?

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Cast & Crew See All

Patrick Bedford
Paul Barringer
Sandy Dennis
Sylvia Barrett
Eileen Heckart
Henrietta Pastorfield

Featured Video

Up The Down Staircase
Up The Down Staircase
4:24

4:24 Up The Down Staircase

Awards

  • 1968 - WGA Award (Screen) - Best Written American Drama - nominated
  • 1967 - Best Actress - - winner
  • 1967 - Grand Prix - - nominated
  • 1968 - NSFC Award - Best Supporting Actress - nominated

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