The film depicts the attempts of an idealistic teacher, Miss MacMichael, to inspire her pupils in an inner-city London school. While trying to help the teens she works with, she also must fight the ultra authoritarian headmaster, Mr Sutton.
Although the film was shot in Britain it was financed entirely from the United States which the director thought was "disgraceful".[2]
Reception
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "A curious throwback to the days of The Blackboard Jungle [1955] and, closer to home, To Sir with Love [1967], which fails to make much of a case, in its earnest liberal fashion, for the way society shapes its juvenile delinquents. Reformist in inspiration, inappropriate in interpretation (Oliver Reed plays Sutton the headmaster as though he were a music-hall character), and inexplicable in casting (it is the most unlikely vehicle yet for Glenda Jackson), the film simply limps from one clumsy exhibition of delinquency to the next. It does, however, give work to a fair number of young black actors, which is not an everyday occurrence, and one performance in particular stands out: Phil Daniels as the lanky adolescent with the prurient eye whom Miss MacMichael designates to give the functionaries of the school board an eye-opening tour of the premises' seedier nooks and crannied."[3]
Janet Maslin in the New York Times wrote, "Brut Productions, which once brought you Glenda Jackson in A Touch of Class [1973], this time presents her in circumstances that are decidedly déclassé ... Miss Jackson does nothing here that she hasn't done better elsewhere."[4]
Variety criticized the film as, "Treading the usual characterizations and situations", but added, "Though predictable, and the script serviceable for this oft-treated theme, with direction average, it has Glenda Jackson adding her presence to the part of a dedicated teacher who eschews a second marriage to stay with her impossible charges."[5]
Time Out wrote: "Reed, as the neo-fascist headmaster of a school for delinquents, parodies his boorish film persona to the point of farce, alternately strutting around like a boiled turkey or oiling his way with the school's visitors, while Jackson goes at her role of committed teacher/lone befriender of kids with jaw-forward heartiness. Add to this conflict in styles the film's confused intentions – black comedy, the horrific realities of reform schools, a sentimental belief that understanding will overcome – and you have a mess."[6]
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