Ok ladies you're going to need to get out you're mini skirts for today's stroll, gentlemen you can come along and enjoy the view.
As many of us get our kids ready to go back to school, be it grade school or college, I thought a good place to visit today would be the classroom of Mark Thackeray or as he is known to most of us....Sidney Poitier. The year was 1967 and I was still in high school and just loved this movie then and still do. And ditto for the theme song!
I give you..."To Sir With Love"
Sidney Poitier was at the pinnacle of his movie career in 1967. Besides To Sir, with Love he also starred in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? and In the Heat of the Night. Quite a year indeed. Poitier plays Mark Thackeray an unemployed engineer who takes a job teaching high school in London's East End slums, all the while hoping to land a job in his chosen profession. His students are an unruly lot bordering on the edge of juvenile delinquency. Thackeray first wins their grudging respect and finally their trust and affection. As the title song says he takes them from "crayons to perfume."
This movie is a bit sentimental and the students seem remarkably innocent by today's standards. Perhaps the most amusing aspect of this movie, looking back on it with a modern perspective, is the innocence of it all. The classroom full of tough students would be laughed at today. Their language and their antics are all so mild that rather than be viewed as troubled students; some teachers would probably consider themselves lucky to have them in their classroom.
Still it retains a certain amount of charm that still works. It helps that the movie is set in England. With the exception of Poitier the cast is made up of Brits. The accents on some of them, especially the student's parents, are pretty thick. It is also less concerned with race because of its locale. In the Heat of the Night and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? are ABOUT Poitier's skin color in white America. But here, Thackeray just happens to be black.
1967 was an important year for movie soundtracks. Both this movie and the even more successful The Graduate, incorporated pop songs to comment on their plots. The title song, gorgeously song by Lulu, is heard no less than 4 times over the course of the movie. Most memorably during a montage of the students on a museum field trip.
Lulu also costarred in the movie as Babs, the bad girl with the good voice. She gives a refreshing performance. It's a shame she didn't become a bigger star here in the States. She was a very talented young woman.
The ending is uplifting if predictable. Thackeray finally receives that long desired job offer, but you just know he won't accept it. "Sir" has discovered his true vocation.
I think about how many teachers out there today that could be doing something else and making much more money too, but choose to teach. I say "hats off to them" and thank you. This strolling was for you.
