Review – To Sir With Love (1967)

“To Sir With Love”, made in 1967, constantly makes it into many peoples “Top 10 movies of all time” lists, and re watching it last night for the first time in a while, it’s easy to see why. I have seen this film so many times now, it never loses it’s charm, and stands up very well to repeated viewings. It’s one of those classic old movies that retains it’s power to this day, like “Up The Junction” and the television drama “Cathy Come Home”.

It’s based on E.R Braithwaites autobiographical novel, which draws inspiration from his own personal experiences working in a tough East End school in the early sixties.

Mark Thackeray, played to perfection by Poitier, is an immigrant from British Guyana, he’s an engineer by trade, but due to a lack of work, and to make ends meet, he is forced to take up a teaching post at North Quay Secondary School in the East End of London. Most of the pupils have been rejected by other schools, and their unruly conduct caused the last teacher to resign. The pupils, led by Bert Denham and Pamela Dare, proceed to make Thackeray’s life difficult, with their dispruptive behavior, and a series of horrible, distasteful pranks.

The situation gradually escalates, until a particularly nasty prank causes him to snap, and do something he swore he’d never do, lose his temper. After his outburst he decides to take a different approach to teaching this class, which involves, ditching the textbooks saying, “those are out ,they are useless to you”. he also tells them that, from now on, they are simply going to talk, about anything they want to, life, death, love, sex, rebellion, “anything you want”. The final piece of the puzzle is that they are to observe certain courtesies within the classroom, including calling Thackeray “Sir”, the girls “Miss”, and the boys by their surnames. Everything is now in place and we see a gradual shift in attitudes culminating in the final, touching, scene at the end of term school dance. Poitier is ably supported by a cast which includes the likes of Lulu, making her acting debut, Christian Roberts, Judy Geeson, Suzy Kendall, Patricia Routledge, Adrienne Posta, Geoffrey Bayldon, and Christopher Chittell, who you may recognise as a very young Eric Pollard from Emmerdale.

The film did so unexpectedly well in the States that Columbia Pictures did market research to find out why so many people had gone to see it. Their answer…Sidney Poitier. The year 1967 really was a golden year for him. He was riding high on the success of two very big movies that year, “Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner” and “In The Heat Of The Night”, both huge box offices hits. “To Sir With Love” crowned that succession of great films, three brilliantly made movies within the space of a year, quite an achievement.

This movie is about many things, amongst them, teen angst, race relations, and poverty. But, aside from the pressing social issues of the time, it’s about teased hair, heavy eyeliner and miniskirts, and that brilliant title song, of course. Who could ever forget Lulu warbling about crayons and perfume? As for the rest of the soundtrack, it’s provided by the Mindbenders, and perfectly suits the mood of the film. Each and every track is an absolute winner. Sadly the original soundtrack album is no longer available, unless you are lucky enough to be able to track down one of the many vinyl copies, which are still knocking around on Ebay and various other sites specialising in collectible LPs.

To sum up, “To Sir With Love” is a complete charmer of a movie, anchored by Poitier’s flawless performance, with copious amounts of life breathed into it, by a cast of fresh, bright, talented, young actors, and it was released at a time when the world was captivated by all things British. I’d imagine it was also quite daring for the time it was made.

Over the years it has been, unfairly or not, compared to “The Blackboard Jungle” made in 1955, with a hint of “Dangerous Minds”, the 1995 Michelle Pfeifer movie. But none of those have the pure sweetness of Judy Geeson, as Thackeray’s irrepressible student Pamela Dare. At the end of the movie, when Thackeray and Dare dance together, racial, social and philosophical barriers are smashed, and hope springs eternal. It’s the perfect ending to an outstanding and unforgettable movie.