The Blackboard Jungle (1955)

The Blackboard Jungle insert movie poster image courtesy Heritage Auction Galleries

Director Richard Brooks and MGM brought The Blackboard Jungle to movie theaters in 1955. Glenn Ford plays an idealistic teacher struggling to reach his students, with Anne Francis as his sympathetic wife.

Evan Hunter’s The Blackboard Jungle

The Blackboard Jungle is based on the novel of the same name by Evan Hunter (1926-2005). Born Salvatore Albert Lombino, Hunter also wrote under the pseudonyms Ed McBain, Richard Marsten, Ezra Hannon, Curt Cannon and Hunt Collins.

Published by Simon and Schuster in 1954, The Blackboard Jungle was inspired by Hunter’s brief stint as a teacher at Bronx Vocational High School in New York City. The novel, called “nightmarish but authentic” by one critic, went on to become a bestseller in both hardcover and paperback.

In October 1954, the same month in which the unabridged novel was released, a condensed version of The Blackboard Jungle also appeared in a special education issue of Ladies’ Home Journal.

Richard Brooks Directs The Blackboard Jungle

Richard Brooks wrote and directed The Blackboard Jungle for producer Pandro S. Berman and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures. Scott Bradley and Charles Wolcott created the original music score, complete with a rousing rendition of “(We’re Gonna) Rock Around the Clock” by Bill Haley and His Comets.

The Blackboard Jungle was filmed from November to December 1954 at El Segundo (California) High School. Built in 1927 and replete with Neo-Gothic architecture, towering pine trees and a well-manicured front lawn, El Segundo High has been a favorite Hollywood filming location for years. The fabled “Anywhere USA” school has played host to such movie and television productions as Logan’s Run (1976), WarGames (1983), Superbad (2007), CSI: Miami, Beverly Hills 90210, The O.C. and 24.

Glenn Ford and Anne Francis Head Cast

Glenn Ford (Richard Dadier) and Anne Francis (Anne Dadier) head the cast. Other players include Louis Calhern (Jim Murdock), Margaret Hayes (Lois Judby Hammond), John Hoyt (Mr. Warneke), Richard Kiley (Joshua Y. Edwards), Emile Meyer (Mr. Halloran), Warner Anderson (Dr. Bradley), Basil Ruysdael (Professor A.R. Kraal), Sidney Poitier (Gregory W. Miller), Vic Morrow (Artie West), Dan Terranova (Belazi), Rafael Campos (Pete V. Morales), Paul Mazursky (Emmanuel Stoker), Horace McMahon (Detective) and Danny Dennis (De Lica).

Other familiar faces dotting the urban jungle are Jameel Farah a.k.a. Jamie Farr (Santini), Richard Deacon (Mr. Stanley), James Drury (Hospital Attendant), Tommy Ivo (Frightened Student) and Emil Sitka (Father).

The Blackboard Jungle Rocks Around the Clock

U.S. Navy veteran Richard Dadier garners his first teaching job at a tough inner-city vocational high school. An English teacher with high expectations, Dadier soon learns the harsh realities after meeting his students, an unruly bunch of underachievers and sociopaths.

The all-male school is headed by Mr. Warneke, who is loath to admit that his fine institution may have a discipline problem. Other staff occupying the school’s combat zone include Jim Murdock, a cynical teacher just biding his time to retirement; Lois Hammond, a young, idealistic female educator, and Joshua Y. Edwards, a passive instructor whose prized collection of jazz records, including Bix Beiderbecke’s classic “Jazz Me Blues,” is trashed by his hoodlum pupils.

Voicing his concerns to his pregnant wife Anne, Richard Dadier seriously considers taking another teaching job at a nice, safe, private school. It’s little wonder, as the new “teach” experiences a series of disturbing incidents, including a sexual assault in the library, anonymous letters sent to his wife alleging an affair and a rough-and-tumble showdown with the violent, knife-wielding punk Artie West.

The Blackboard Jungle Opens in New York City

The Blackboard Jungle made its debut at New York City’s Loew’s State Theater on March 19, 1955.

“As a straight melodrama of juvenile violence this is a vivid and hair-raising film…It is as hard and penetrating as a nail,” reported Bosley Crowther of The New York Times (3/21/55).

“Glenn Ford, Morrow and Poitier are so real in their performances under the probing direction by Brooks that the picture alternatingly has the viewer pleading, indignant and frightened before the conclusion,” opined Variety (3/2/55).  

“An exaggerated account of an increasing problem,” observed Life magazine in an illustrated story/review titled “Bad Boys in the Schoolroom” (3/28/55).

The Blackboard Jungle Box Office, Academy Award Nominations, Trivia, DVD

• The Blackboard Jungle hit movie theaters like a pair of brass knuckles, grossing $5.459 million at the box office, good for the #14 position on the list of the top moneymaking films of 1955.
• The Blackboard Jungle earned four Oscar nominations: Best Screenplay, Best B&W Cinematography, Best B&W Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Film Editing.
• The movie features one of the oldest student bodies in Hollywood history. Portraying teenagers are Vic Morrow (born 1929) at 26-years-old, Sidney Poitier (born 1927) at 28, Paul Mazursky (born 1930) at 25, Jamie Farr (born 1934) at 21, Danny Dennis (born 1927) at 28 and Dan Terranova (born 1930) at 25. Talk about no “child” left behind…
• One classroom features a cardboard alphabet display at the top of the blackboard. Nice touch – if this were a first grade classroom and not a high school.
• In January 1955 The Saturday Evening Post began running a five-part series on juvenile delinquency titled “The Shame of America.” It proved to be fabulous promotional material for The Blackboard Jungle’s March 1955 release.
• On DVD: Controversial Classics Collection (Warner, 2005).

“You ever try to fight thirty-five guys at one time, Teach?” the violent Artie West sneers.

Substitute teaching, anyone?