May 19th 
Blackboard Jungle** (12A)
(The Garden Cinema, Covent Garden)

(US 1955)
MGM. 101m. bw

A war veteran takes on his first major teaching job at a violent ethnic neighbourhood school.
Famous chiefly for its rock-and-roll soundtrack that had some thuggish audiences in the 50's tearing up seats during the opening credits, this vivid school melodrama still packs a punch, and in spite of a slightly prosaic ending, the themes and the issues still haven't changed, and also an interesting on-screen evolution of the career of Sidney Poitier.

Written and Directed by: Richard Brooks, from the novel by Evan Hunter.
Producer: Pandro S. Berman.
Starring: Glenn Ford, Sidney Poitier, Anne Francis, Louis Calhern, Vic Morrow, Margaret Hayes, Richard Kiley, John Hoyt, Paul Mazursky.
Photography: Russell Harlan.
Music: Bill Haley and the Comets, and others.

+ part of the Sidney Poitier season featuring at the lovely new art deco-styled Garden Cinema in Covent Garden