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The Late Ellen O'Mara's Superb Performance as Alice Blake.

posted 17 years ago by alfiehitchie
23 replies | jump to latest

Miss O'Mara gave a heartbreaking performance as Alice Blake in Up the Down Staircase. Critic Andrew Sarris wrote in his review for the film: "There is a five-or-six minute sequence in Up the Down Staircase that is better than anything I have seen on the screen this year. The sequence begins with an act of compassion at a high school dance and ends with an adolescent's suicide attempt the next day. The lyrical link between the two time sequences is composed of a gliding camera movement that follows the young girl as she shuffles away from and back to the teacher's letter box in which she hs deposited a note of heartfelt gratitude for the night before. The teacher (Patrick Bedford) summons her for a cruel lesson in "composition." As he corrects her grammatical (and emotional) errors, Mulligan's camera glances at the girl's poignantly inexpressive face and then cuts to her hand clutching the sleeve of her coat. Between them, Robert Mulligan and Ellen O'Mara have resurrected the behavorial beauty of those old Hollywood movies that amaze us with their privileged moments in the midst of punk scenarios." New York film critic Arthur Knight wrote "Under (Robert) Mulligan's skillful guidance, not one of these youngsters displays an iota of self-consciousness; and plain, plumpish Ellen O'Mara, hopelessly in love with her English teacher, quite simply tears your heart out."

alfie

[–] Maddyclassicfilms 7 years ago

Agreed. She made me really feel for her character.

Go to bed Frank or this is going to get ugly .

[–] [deleted] 2 years ago

It should be noted that her "friend" Carol/Carmelita was nothing more than an instigating manipulator advancing no further than bully.
She goaded the poor girl at every angle if only for the need for some power and accomplishment.
...
All else aside, Sandy Dennis had great legs.

[–] CreosoteXmp37 (291) a year ago

From past viewings I remembered Carol/Carmelita as more of a busybody, but not maliciously so. I just rewatched UTDS as it was on TCM earlier today and I can say your observation of her character was spot on as a meddling, bullying instigator; even if she didn't do so out of actual malice.

Lots of situations where you can tell Alice's gut feeling is to play it cool, and then being almost forced into making advances her normal persona would never do:

- Asking Mr Barringer to put her in his English class.

- Raising her hand and speaking in class to make comments that were not germane to what was being discussed...with her "friend" publicly setting her up for it.

- Alice was clearly uncomfortable with approaching Ms Barrett and Mr Barringer as they were chaperoning the dance, but Carol all but dragged her there, and then acted in the capacity of Alice's "wingman" of sorts. You can see how uncomfortable she was when speaking to Ms Barrett in her face and body language. Of course Carol had to get a dig in as she wisecracked about Alice rehearsing the dialog she'd use.

- Not a doubt in the world she put Alice up to writing that letter to Mr. Barringer. After Alice returned to the classroom after dropping off the letter, she asked Alice "well, did you do it?" and you can see the onset of her premonition of the crushing humiliation that was to come, causing her to try in vain to return and grab the letter back.

Definitely not the moves of someone acting in good faith ( misguided though it may be ) by trying to get someone to break out of their shell and set her up with a guy.

Loved Sandy Dennis in that movie BTW.