The premise of a young teacher who inspires a group of undisciplined, uncouth young people headed for dismal futures, is an ages old story. You can trace it back to the old Bette Davis 1945 Warner Bros chestnut "The Corn is Green," and it goes back even farther than that. There have been many variations of the same story, from MGM’s 1955 "The Backboard Jungle" co-staring a young Sidney Poitier as a manipulative juvenile delinquent, to "Up the Down Staircase," "Stand and Deliver," "Lean on Me," "Dangerous Minds" and similar others.
But for my money, one of the best is the British made 1967 Columbia Pictures movie,…
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