Vic Morrow was really good. I didn't even recognize him as a young blond kid. When I was watching the film I was thinking, "it's too bad that kid didn't keep acting". Then I got to the credits and saw that it was Vic Morrow. Shocker.
I didn't notice Jamie Farr either until I saw the credits.
Sidney Portier was also very good. He was very young but he already had the charisma and presence he showed in other roles.
Interestingly enough, in the 60s Sidney Portier portrayed a similiar teacher in "To Sir, With Love" taming a rowdy class in an English School.
shareI recognized Vic Morrow right off the bat. It was Jamie Farr that I kept going - Is that him? All I feel did a really good job, especially Glenn Ford.
shareI didn't spot Jamie Farr at all.
Poitier and Morrow were excellent.
Interesting that Poitier played a doctor in the 1950 film No Way Out, a high school student in this 1955 movie, and later, he played a teacher.
~~~~~
Jim Hutton (1934-79) & Ellery Queen =
Jamie Farr played Santini, the slightly retarded kid who at the end grabs the American flag and hits Salazzo, the kid trying to get out of the class, with it.
He's billed in the end credits as "Jameel Farrah", his real name.
Almost all the "kids" in this class were too old for high schoolers, but Poitier takes the prize, playing a 17- or 18-year-old at age 28! Only Terry Moore, who played the high school flirt in Peyton Place in 1957, equaled Poitier's record -- she was also 28 when that film was made.
Thanks for the info on Jamie Farr.
It's common for older actors to play high school kids. (Think Fonzie & company.)
Interesting that Poitier went from playing a doctor (No Way Out, 1950) to playing a high school student (in this movie), to playing a teacher about 10 years later. Interesting timeline!
~~~~~
Jim Hutton (1934-79) & Ellery Queen =
Oh, of course it's usual for older actors to play HS students. But a decade or more is stretching it a little.
I saw your comment about Poitier's career trajectory on another thread. The move from doctor to high school student five years later is funny, but not so much his surfacing as a teacher 12 years later. He played a lot of varied adult roles in between.
Jeanne Crain, who as you know is the subject of a thread at the moment on the CFB, went from playing a suburban housewife in A Letter to Three Wives and a black nurse passing for white in Pinky, both in 1949, right back to playing a high school student in Cheaper by the Dozen in 1950, then a college freshman the following year in Take Care of My Little Girl. Actors have often found themselves shifted "back in time" from one movie to another. But it can be a little strange sometimes.
I also just realized that the OP misspelled "Poitier" in her thread title and her message. It's been changed as of this post.
I've corrected the spelling error/typo, too.
By the way, Henry Winkler was pushing 30 when he first played Fonzie. I double-checked, and he was born in 1945. The show started in the mid-70s.
I saw the thread on the CFB about Jeanne Crain, but I don't have anything to add to it.
~~~~~
Jim Hutton (1934-79) & Ellery Queen =
Yeah, Henry Winkler was I think 29 or 30 when Happy Days started, but while he was clearly supposed to be younger than his age he actually wasn't a student in that show. His age has always been a bit hazy but the Fonz is supposed to be a few years older than Richie and the other high school kids in the show (who themselves were older than real HS students) -- maybe 23, 24, 25 or so.
shareOh, OK, I didn't realize that.
I haven't seen that show in about 25 years. Even then, I only saw a handful of episodes. I would have seen more, but they weren't aired on the channels which we had at home.
~~~~~
Jim Hutton (1934-79) & Ellery Queen =
I liked it for a couple of years but then it lost its edge and originality and began going for cheap, easy laughs by the repeated use of audience-pleasing catch-phrases and situations, each geared to getting the same old predictable reactions. Eventually it even lost much of the sense of the period in which it took place.
shareI noticed that, too. The early episodes of Happy Days seemed quite original, but later, they just switched to the 80s look and all that. It's a show which probably should have been taken off the air after a couple of years. But then, the same can probably be said about most sitcoms.
~~~~~
Jim Hutton (1934-79) & Ellery Queen =