As one of the movies (along with "In the Heat of the Night" and "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner") that made 1967 Sidney Poitier's annus mirabilis, "To Sir, with Love" shows a man forced to take charge in a less-than-pleasant situation. Poitier plays Mark Thackeray, a Guyanese engineer hired to teach in a high school in a rough London neighborhood. The students not only have little interest in school, but are not quite ready to be taught by a black man. Mark is forced to show the students that he will not tolerate insubordination.

Poitier did great in this role, with good support from the rest of the cast (including Lulu, who sang the theme song). It affirms his status as one of the greatest actors in movie history. And also, I hope that nobody tries to compare this with "Dangerous Minds"; the latter was in my opinion an insult. "To Sir, with Love" was a masterpiece.

I am different than many of the reviewers in that I taught high school...though the kids weren't quite like those in "To Sir, With Love". And, while the miraculous change in the kids through the course of the film is hard to believe, there is a certain decency and sweetness about the movie that I could not resist.

The story is about Mr. Thackery (Sidney Poitier) and his seemingly impossible job. While he's a trained engineer, he cannot find work....so he decides to become a teacher...at least until something better comes along. The problem is that he's working with a lot of rough teens--teens who see no future for themselves and who have pretty much given up on amounting to anything. At first, the kids are uncivil...little jerks just biding their time until graduation. However, through the course of the term, his students learn to respect others and themselves...and prove that they might have bright futures.

As I mentioned above, the change in the students is a bit hard to believe if you think about it. But it's still an excellent film....inspiring even. Well worth seeing and filled with some terrific acting, writing and music. And yes, that IS Lulu not only singing the title song but acting as one of Mr. Thackery's students.

Twelve years earlier a much too old Sidney Poitier was cast as one of the delinquents bedeviling Glenn Ford in The Blackboard Jungle. Now across the pond Sidney got a taste of what he was dishing out to Glenn in one of his biggest hits, To Sir With Love.

Poitier is an engineer, born in British Guiana and educated in America, he's now in London taking a teaching job in the tough East End of London. But delinquent kids are the same everywhere. These kids are into sex and rock and roll and at that time rock and roll had a most English accent, courtesy of the Beatles.

It takes a while, but eventually Sid wins their trust in a variety of ways from sage advice to a good body blow to Christian Roberts who plays the toughest nut in his classroom bag to crack.

To Sir With Love was shot on location in the United Kingdom and did very well at the box office. The title song, sung by Lulu who plays one of the kids here, was a tremendous hit in the middle sixties on both sides of the pond.

To Sir With Love helped launch the career of Judy Geeson who's still doing quite well. She plays young Pamela Dare who's developing quite the crush on handsome Sid. Poitier certainly handles it a lot better than it would be shown today.

I'm surprised that a television series wasn't developed from this at least in the United Kingdom. It certainly had a lot of potential in that direction.

For those of you nostalgic for the British scene in the sixties when they ruled the pop world, To Sir With Love is your film.