Blackboard Jungle
Clare Boothe Luce, then U.S. Ambassador to Italy, prevented the film from being shown at the Venice Film Festival; and a Senate committee had decided that the film would not have beneficial effects on contemporary youth. Both incidents only served to increase publicity and ticket sales for the controversial movie.,In the garage scene, when Miller starts fixing the car, he says "nobody gives a hoot", but his lips indicates he really says "nobody gives a damn". The replacement of the profanity is made humorous by the director, who chose to play the sound effect of a car horn when the word "hoot" is uttered.,Richard Dadier: Yeah, I've been beaten up, but I'm not beaten. I'm not beaten, and I'm not quittin'.,"We, in the United States, are fortunate to have a school system that is a tribute to our communities and to our faith in American youth. Today we are concerned with juvenile delinquency -- its causes -- and its effects. We are especially concerned when this delinquency boils over into our schools. The scenes and incidents depicted here are fictional. However, we believe that public awareness is a first step toward a remedy for any problem. Is is in this spirit and with this faith that BLACKBOARD JUNGLE was produced.",The film was originally rejected in the UK for containing "unbridled, revolting hooliganism" and having a "damaging and harmful effect (on teenagers)". Following protests from the distributor, it was viewed again but there was an even split between examiners in favor of banning it again or cutting it for an X (16) certificate. After further meetings where the distributor claimed it had a sincere moral purpose, a cuts list was drawn up which removed around five minutes of footage. This included the following:
Despite the heated conflict involving the BBFC and mixed reviews, the release of this X-rated cut version passed without incident and very little public feedback. No councils who viewed it chose to ban it. In 1996, it was submitted for a video release and passed uncut with a 12 certificate.,Edited into Heavy Petting (1989),Rock Around the Clock
Written by James E. Myers and Max Freedman
Performed by Bill Haley and the Comets
Courtesy of Decca Records, Inc.,A history professor once told me, "If you want to change history, become a historian." This statement might also apply to movie critics. I came of age (turned 13) when I saw this movie when it was first released in 1955. My buds and I liked the movie, not because it was a shocker, which it was not, but because it dealt fairly realistically with teenagers, much more so than say the old Andy Hardy series. To my knowledge no one was really shocked by this movie. There was no big hoopla by "concerned" citizens as there would be when Elia Kazan's "Baby Doll" played on the same screen a few years later. And "Rock Around The Clock" was not considered rock 'n' roll by most teens, only a pop hit along the lines of "Sh-boom." The first record actually considered rock 'n' roll by most teens was Chuck Berry's "Maybelline." When my buds and I first heard it on the radio, we stopped the car and listened intently to a new kind of teen music. That did not happen with anything Bill Haley and the Comets put on wax. Those who say "The Blackboard Jungle" was a shocker simply did not live through that period of history. Some of these same critics believe that the average family of the 50's was like the one portrayed on "Leave It To Beaver." I knew of no family in my neighborhood that lived like the Cleavers. We found "Rebel Without a Cause" and a somewhat neglected film "The Wild One" to be the ones that related to our rebellious side. "The Wild One," especially Marlon Brando's performance, was the standout film for us teens in those days. Another later Robert Mitchum flick, "Thunder Road," was also a movie that spoke to the teens of the period. Marlon Brando, James Dean, and Robert Mitchum were movie role models for many of us growing up in the turbulent 50's, not Glenn Ford or even Vic Morrow and Sidney Poitier.

That's not to say that this movie is not worth seeing, for it is a good movie dealing in a somewhat no nonsense way with teaching rebellious and sometimes dangerous teens, who see nothing relevant in book learning and who don't want to be exposed to the higher levels of intellectual endeavors. How do you teach the unteachable? Still a challenge today in the American classroom.,