To Sir, with Love II

Last updated
To Sir, with Love II
To Sir, with Love II.jpg
To Sir, with Love II DVD cover
Genre Drama
Based onCharacters from
E. R. Braithwaite's book To Sir, With Love
Written byPhilip Rosenberg
Directed by Peter Bogdanovich
Starring Sidney Poitier
Christian Payton
Dana Eskelson
Theme music composerTrevor Lawrence
Original languageEnglish
Production
ProducerRichard Stenta
CinematographyWilliam Birch
EditorDianne Ryder-Rennolds
Running time92 minutes
Production companies
Release
Original network CBS
Original release
  • April 7, 1996 (1996-04-07)(United States)

To Sir, with Love II is a 1996 American television film directed by Peter Bogdanovich (his first made-for-TV film). A sequel to the 1967 British film To Sir, with Love , it stars Sidney Poitier reprising the role of Mark Thackeray. Like the first film, it deals with social issues in an inner city school. [1] [2] [3]

Contents

Plot

Mark Thackeray (Sidney Poitier), from British Guiana by way of California, took a teaching position in a London East End school in the 1967 film. He spent twenty years teaching and ten in administrative roles. He has taught the children of his former pupils, and is now retiring.

Thackeray's former students, Pamela Dare and Barbara Pegg (Judy Geeson and Lulu reprising their roles from the original film), come to the farewell party. Thackeray announces that he is leaving for an inner-city school in Chicago where he will teach again. In Chicago, he meets his former colleague Horace Weaver (Daniel J. Travanti), who is the principal of the school. Thackeray learns that there is an A class with good students and an H (for "horror") class for the "no-gooders". He convinces the principal to let him take the H class as, in his own admission, that is what he does best. His new pupils are noisy, unruly and engaged in destructive behaviours. As he did in London, he starts by teaching them respect for others. He addresses the pupils as Mr or Miss and their last names, and expects to be called Mr. Thackeray or Sir by them in return.

Gradually, he learns their personal stories: Wilsie (Christian Payton) is a gang leader who protects his younger brother. A black female battles against double prejudice. Evie (Dana Eskelson) hides growing up without parents to avoid being fostered. A fellow teacher, Louisa Rodriguez (Saundra Santiago), admires him.

It is revealed that as a teenager in British Guiana, Thackeray fell in love with a girl from Chicago. They lost contact and he went to Britain to study, became a teacher, and got married. Now a widower, Thackeray took this teaching opportunity hoping to find his earlier love.

At the new school, he sets out to teach the troubled students their true potential by taking their fates in their hands. He teaches about the non-violent resistance of the historic fighters of civil rights. When he discovers Wilsie smuggling a gun into the school, he confronts him and convinces him to yield the weapon and he delivers it to the police as a found object.

Later, the police pressure him to reveal the identity of the gun owner because the gun had been used to kill a police officer. He refuses and has to leave the school.

Evie, who works at a newspaper, investigates Thackeray's old love, Emily Taylor (Cheryl Lynn Bruce). Evie arranges for him to meet Taylor, and also meets her son. Thackeray learns that Taylor returned his affections, but her father kept Thackeray's letters from her because she was pregnant with Thackeray's son.

Thackeray learns that Wilsie is hiding because he thinks that the police are after him. He convinces Wilsie's brother to take him to the hiding place. Thackeray convinces Wilsie to give up violent gang life. After he confronts a rival gang looking for Wilsie, Wilsie and a friend with access to more firearms turn themselves in to the police.

The pupils stage a "stand in" to force the principal to reinstate their beloved teacher.

The term ends with a graduation ceremony, and a dance like in the original movie, where Thackeray announces that he is not returning to Britain but staying in Chicago to teach the new generation.

Cast

Reception

The film received mixed reviews. Scott Pierce of Deseret News dismissed the film as a remake of the original film, but praises Sidney Poitier for succeeding in this movie with sheer talent. [4] John Leonard of New York describes the film as "a bad idea that turned into a pretty good" one and praises Peter Bogdanovich and Philip Rosenberg for being able to "make characters in the 60s work just as well in the 90s". [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Bogdanovich</span> American film director (1939–2022)

Peter Bogdanovich was an American director, writer, actor, producer, critic, and film historian of Serbian extraction. He started his career as a film critic for Film Culture and Esquire before becoming a film director in the New Hollywood movement. He received accolades including a BAFTA Award and Grammy Award, as well as nominations for two Academy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sidney Poitier</span> Bahamian, US actor (1927–2022)

Sidney Poitier was a Bahamian and American actor, film director, and diplomat. In 1964, he was the first Black actor and first Bahamian to win the Academy Award for Best Actor. He received two competitive Golden Globe Awards, a BAFTA Award, and a Grammy Award as well as nominations for two Emmy Awards and a Tony Award. In 1999, he ranked among one of the "American Film Institute's 100 Stars". Poitier was one of the last surviving stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema.

<i>Lilies of the Field</i> (1963 film) American comedy drama by Ralph Nelson

Lilies of the Field is a 1963 American comedy drama film adapted by James Poe from the 1962 novel of the same name by William Edmund Barrett, and stars Sidney Poitier, Lilia Skala, Stanley Adams, and Dan Frazer. It was produced and directed by Ralph Nelson. The title comes from the Sermon on the Mount in the Bible. It features an early film score by prolific composer Jerry Goldsmith. The film was turned into a Broadway musical in 1970, retitled Look to the Lilies, with Shirley Booth in the role of Mother Maria Marthe.

<i>A Patch of Blue</i> 1965 film by Guy Green

A Patch of Blue is a 1965 American drama film directed by Guy Green about the friendship between an educated black man and an illiterate, blind, white 18-year-old girl, and the problems that plague their friendship in a racially divided America. Made in 1965 against the backdrop of the growing civil rights movement, the film explores racism while playing on the idea that "love is blind."

<i>To Sir, with Love</i> 1967 British drama film

To Sir, with Love is a 1967 British drama film that deals with social and racial issues in an inner city school. It stars Sidney Poitier and features Christian Roberts, Judy Geeson, Suzy Kendall, Patricia Routledge and singer Lulu making her film debut. James Clavell directed from his own screenplay, which was based on E. R. Braithwaite's 1959 autobiographical novel of the same name.

<i>Ghost Dad</i> 1990 American fantasy comedy film

Ghost Dad is a 1990 American fantasy comedy film directed by Sidney Poitier and starring Bill Cosby, in which a widower's spirit is able to communicate with his children after his death. It was a critical and box office bomb.

<i>Goodbye, Mr. Chips</i> (1939 film) 1939 film by Sam Wood

Goodbye, Mr. Chips is a 1939 romantic drama film starring Robert Donat, Greer Garson and directed by Sam Wood. Based on the 1934 novella of the same name by James Hilton, the film is about Mr. Chipping, a beloved aged school teacher and former headmaster of a boarding school, who recalls his career and his personal life over the decades. Produced for the British division of MGM at Denham Studios, the film was dedicated to Irving Thalberg, who died on 14 September 1936. At the 12th Academy Awards, it was nominated for seven awards, including Best Picture, and for his performance as Mr. Chipping, Donat won the award for Best Actor.

<i>The Great St. Trinians Train Robbery</i> 1966 British film

The Great St. Trinian's Train Robbery is a British comedy film, directed by Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat, written by Sidney and Leslie Gilliat, and released on 4 April 1966. It is the last of the original series of films based on the St Trinian's School set of images and comics, and the only one to be produced in colour. The film stars a selection of actors from previous films in the series, including George Cole, Richard Wattis, Eric Barker, Michael Ripper, and Raymond Huntley, alongside Frankie Howerd, Reg Varney, Dora Bryan, and the voice of Stratford Johns.

<i>Dangerous Minds</i> 1995 American drama film directed by John N. Smith

Dangerous Minds is a 1995 American drama film directed by John N. Smith and produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer. It is based on the autobiography My Posse Don't Do Homework by retired U.S. Marine LouAnne Johnson, who in 1989 took up a teaching position at Carlmont High School in Belmont, California, where most of her students were African-American and Latino teenagers from East Palo Alto, a racially segregated and economically deprived city. Michelle Pfeiffer stars as Johnson. The critical consensus on Rotten Tomatoes calls it "rife with stereotypes". The film grossed $179.5 million and led to the creation of a short-lived television series.

<i>No Way Out</i> (1950 film) 1950 film by Joseph L. Mankiewicz

No Way Out is a 1950 American drama film directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, and starring Richard Widmark, Linda Darnell, Sidney Poitier, and Stephen McNally, who portrays a doctor tending to slum residents whose ethics are tested when confronted with racism, personified by Widmark as hateful robber Ray Biddle.

Saundra Santiago is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Det. Gina Calabrese in the NBC original crime drama series Miami Vice (1984–1990). She also played Carmen Santos on the CBS soap opera Guiding Light and the second Carlotta Vega on the ABC soap opera One Life to Live.

<i>Shoot to Kill</i> (1988 film) 1988 film by Roger Spottiswoode

Shoot to Kill is a 1988 American buddy cop action thriller film directed by Roger Spottiswoode and starring Sidney Poitier, Tom Berenger, Clancy Brown, Andrew Robinson and Kirstie Alley.

<i>Docks of New York</i> 1945 film by Wallace Fox

Docks of New York is a 1945 film directed by Wallace Fox and starring the East Side Kids.

<i>The Thing Called Love</i> 1993 American film

The Thing Called Love is a 1993 American comedy-drama film directed by Peter Bogdanovich and starring Samantha Mathis as Miranda Presley, a young musician who tries to make it big in Nashville. River Phoenix, Dermot Mulroney and Sandra Bullock also star. While the film involves a love triangle and various complications in Miranda's route to success, it provides a sweetened glimpse at the lives of aspiring songwriters in Nashville. Its tagline is: "Stand by your dream".

<i>For Love of Ivy</i> 1968 film by Daniel Mann

For Love of Ivy is a 1968 romantic comedy film directed by Daniel Mann. The film stars Sidney Poitier, Abbey Lincoln, Beau Bridges, Nan Martin, Lauri Peters, and Carroll O'Connor. The story was written by Poitier with screenwriter Robert Alan Aurthur. The musical score was composed by Quincy Jones. The theme song "For Love of Ivy", written by Quincy Jones and Bob Russell, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song. The film received Golden Globe supporting-acting nominations for Beau Bridges and Abbey Lincoln.

<i>Goodbye Gemini</i> 1970 British film

Goodbye Gemini is a 1970 British psychological horror film directed by Alan Gibson and starring Judy Geeson, Michael Redgrave, and Martin Potter. Based on the novel Ask Agamemnon by Jenni Hall, it concerns a pair of unusually close fraternal twins, Jacki and Julian, discovering Swinging London while home on Spring Break. Their experiences complicate the pair's relationship, which is already strained due to Julian's incestuous fascination with his sister, which he sees as a natural manifestation of what he believes to be the pair's hive-minded nature.

<i>To Sir, With Love</i> (novel) 1959 autobiographical novel by E. R. Braithwaite

To Sir, With Love is a 1959 autobiographical novel by E. R. Braithwaite set in the East End of London. The novel is based on the true story of Braithwaite taking up a teaching post in a secondary school. The novel, in 22 chapters, gives insight into the politics of race and class in postwar London.

<i>The Organization</i> (film) 1971 film by Don Medford

The Organization is a 1971 DeLuxe Color American crime thriller film starring Sidney Poitier and directed by Don Medford. It was the last of the trilogy featuring the police detective Virgil Tibbs that had begun with In the Heat of the Night (1967), followed by They Call Me Mister Tibbs! (1970). In The Organization, Tibbs is called in to hunt down a gang of urban revolutionaries, suspected of a series of crimes. The screenplay was penned by James R. Webb, and the film co-stars Barbara McNair, Gerald S. O'Laughlin, Sheree North and Raul Julia.

A Warm December is a 1973 American romantic drama film directed by Sidney Poitier and starring him in the lead role as Dr. Matt Younger. It also stars Jamaican actress Esther Anderson as Catherine, Matt's love interest. Anderson's performance as an African princess won her a NAACP Image Award for Best Actress in 1973. The film is also notable for an appearance of Letta Mbulu singing, with an African choir, "Nonqonqo" by Miriam Makeba. Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson wrote and conducted the score.

Christian Charles Roberts was a British actor, best remembered for playing the rebellious Bert Denham, his debut film role in the 1967 movie To Sir, with Love starring Sidney Poitier and Judy Geeson. Roberts was born in Southmoor, Oxfordshire. He was educated at Cranleigh School, Surrey, before attending the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Despite several screen appearances, much of his acting career was primarily based in theatre. Roberts starred in the late 1960s cult science-fiction show UFO, playing the hippie-turned-alien spy in the final episode “The Long Sleep”.

References

  1. Tucker, Ken (April 5, 1996). "To Sir, With Love II". Entertainment Weekly . Retrieved September 8, 2021.
  2. McCarthy, John (April 3, 1996). "CBS Sunday Movie to Sir with Love II". Variety . Retrieved September 8, 2021.
  3. James, Caryn (April 6, 1996). "Television Review: Sequel for 'To Sir With Love'". The New York Times . Retrieved September 8, 2021.
  4. Pierce, Scott (April 6, 1996). "'To Sir, with Love II' is a Remake of Original". Deseret News . Retrieved September 8, 2021.
  5. Leonard, John (April 8, 1996). "The Mix". New York Magazine. New York Media. 29 (14): 101. Retrieved September 8, 2021 via Google Books.