To Sir, With Love (1967)

To Sir, with Love is a 1967 British drama film that deals with social and racial issues in an inner city school. It stars Sidney Poitier and...

To Sir, with Love is a 1967 British drama film that deals with social and racial issues in an inner city school. It stars Sidney Poitier and features Christian Roberts, Judy Geeson, Suzy Kendall and singer Lulu making her film debut. James Clavell directed from his own screenplay, which was based on E. R. Braithwaite's 1959 autobiographical novel of the same name. {full_page}

The film's title song "To Sir with Love", sung by Lulu, peaked at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States for five weeks in the autumn of 1967 and ultimately was the best-selling single in the United States of that year. The movie ranked number 27 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the 50 Best High School Movies.

A made-for-television sequel, To Sir, with Love II (1996), was released nearly three decades later, with Poitier reprising his starring role.

Mark Thackeray, an immigrant to Britain from British Guiana, must wait a long period to hear about an engineering job he applied for. In the meantime, he accepts a teaching post at North Quay Secondary School in the tough East End of London, as an interim position.

Most of the school's pupils have been rejected from other schools, and their conduct drove the last teacher to resign. The pupils, led by Bert Denham and Pamela Dare, behave badly: their antics range from disruptive behaviour to distasteful pranks. Thackeray retains a calm demeanour, but loses his temper when he discovers something being burned in the classroom stove (implied to be a used sanitary towel).

He orders the boys out of the classroom, then reprimands all the girls, either for being responsible or passively observing, for what he says is their slutty behaviour. Thackeray is angry with himself for allowing his pupils to get the better of him. Changing his approach, he informs the class they will no longer study from textbooks. Until the end of term, when they are due to leave school, he will treat them as adults and expects them to behave as such ("You will show respect to me and each other at all times.

You will address me as 'Sir' or 'Mr. Thackeray'. Boys will be addressed by their last names; the girls will be likewise addressed, and as 'Miss'."); they can discuss whatever issues they wish, including relationships, marriage, sex, and applying for jobs. He gradually wins the class over, except for Denham, who continually baits him.

Thackeray arranges a class outing to a Natural History Museum in Kensington which goes well. The trip is represented by a series of still photographs as Lulu sings "To Sir With Love."

He loses some support when he defuses a potentially violent situation between Potter and a gym teacher, Mr Bell. In class, he demands that Potter apologize directly to Bell, even if he believes Bell was wrong. The group later refuses to invite Thackeray to the class dance.

When Seales' mother dies, the class takes up a collection for a wreath but refuse to accept Thackeray's donation. The headmaster tells Thackeray that "the adult approach" has failed, and future outings are cancelled. Thackeray is to take over the boys' gym classes until the headmaster can find a replacement. Meanwhile, Thackeray receives the engineer job offer in the post.

During a gym class, Denham smugly challenges Thackeray to a boxing match. Denham delivers several blows to Thackeray's face, but the bout comes to an abrupt end when Thackeray delivers one punch to Denham's mid-section. However, Thackeray compliments Denham's ability and suggests he teach boxing to the younger pupils next year. Denham expresses his admiration for Thackeray to his classmates; Thackeray regains their respect and is invited to the class dance. 

Later, when Thackeray attends the funeral of Seales' mother, he is touched to find that his lectures on personal choices and responsibility have had an effect and the entire class has attended.

At the dance, Pamela chooses Thackeray as her partner for the "Ladies Choice" dance. Afterward, the class presents to Thackeray "a little present to remember us by". Thackeray is moved and retires to his classroom.

Two younger, rowdy pupils rush into the classroom, in what appears an attempt to be alone together. The two laugh at the sentimentality of Thackeray's gifts, a silver tankard and card, "To Sir, with love", with the departing class's signatures. They joke that they will be in his class next year. After they leave, Thackeray tears up the engineering job offer, reconciled to the work he has ahead of him. He then takes a flower from the vase on his desk, places it in his lapel, and leaves.

Cast : 

Sidney Poitier as Mr Mark Thackeray 

Judy Geeson as Pamela Dare 

Christian Roberts as Bert Denham 

Suzy Kendall as Miss Gillian Blanchard 

Lulu as Barbara "Babs" Pegg 

Faith Brook as Miss Grace Evans 

Geoffrey Bayldon as Mr Theo Weston 

Patricia Routledge as Clinty Clintridge 

Ann Bell as Mrs Dare 

Christopher Chittell as Potter 

Adrienne Posta as Moira Joseph 

Edward Burnham as Mr Florian, headmaster 

Rita Webb as Mrs Joseph 

Gareth Robinson as Tich Jackson 

Lynne Sue Moon as Miss Wong 

Anthony Villaroel as Seales 

Richard Willson as Curly 

Michael Des Barres as Williams

Sidney Poitier and James Clavell wanted to do the film, but Columbia was reluctant. They agreed to make the film for small fees, provided Poitier got 10% of the gross and Clavell 30% of the profits. "When we were ready to shoot, Columbia wanted either a rape or a big fight put in," said Martin Baum. We held out, saying this was a gentle story, and we won."

Upon its U.S. release, Bosley Crowther began his review by contrasting the film with Poitier's role and performance in the 1955 film Blackboard Jungle; unlike that earlier film, Crowther says "a nice air of gentility suffuses this pretty color film, and Mr. Poitier gives a quaint example of being proper and turning the other cheek. Although he controls himself with difficulty in some of his confrontations with his class, and even flares up on one occasion, he never acts like a boor, the way one of his fellow teachers (played by Geoffrey Bayldon) does. Except for a few barbed comments by the latter, there is little intrusion of or discussion about the issue of race: It is as discreetly played down as are many other probable tensions in this school. To Sir, with Love comes off as a cozy, good-humored and unbelievable little tale."

Halliwell's Film and Video Guide describes it as "sentimental non-realism" and quotes a Monthly Film Bulletin review (possibly contemporary with its British release), which claims that "the sententious script sounds as if it has been written by a zealous Sunday school teacher after a particularly exhilarating boycott of South African oranges".

The Time Out Film Guide says that it "bears no resemblance to school life as we know it" and the "hoodlums' miraculous reformation a week before the end of term (thanks to teacher Poitier) is laughable". Although agreeing with the claims about the film's sentimentality, and giving it a mediocre rating, the Virgin Film Guide asserts: "What makes  such an enjoyable film is the mythic nature of Poitier's character. He manages to come across as a real person, while simultaneously embodying everything there is to know about morality, respect and integrity."

The film premiered and became a hit one month before another film about troubled schools, Up the Down Staircase, appeared.  The novel author E.R. Braithwaite was ambivalent. He loathed the elimination of the teachers' interracial relationship, but his author royalties enabled some financial security.

To Sir, with Love holds an 89% "Fresh" rating on the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes based on 28 reviews. The film grossed $42,432,803 at the box office in the United States, yielding $19,100,000 in rentals, on a $640,000 budget, making it the sixth highest grossing picture of 1967 in the US. Poitier especially benefited from that film's success considering he agreed on a mere $30,000 fee in exchange for 10% of the gross box office and thus arranged one of the most impressive payoffs in film history. In fact, although Columbia insisted on an annual cap to Poitier of $25,000 to fulfill that percentage term, the studio was forced to revise the deal with Poitier when they calculated they would be committed to 80 years of those payments.

Origin Wikipedia...