Up the Down Staircase is one of those rare films in which all the important talents mesh to form a wonderfully coherent, humane and sensitive vision of an aspect of our reality.

| Jul 6, 2022

It is at once warm and chilling, tough and sentimental, greatly moving, notably honest, improvisationally fresh, wryly and ribaldly funny, disturbing yet infused with a quantity of optimism no larger than the human heart.

| Jul 6, 2022

As the fledgling teacher, Sandy Dennis is big-sisterish and convincingly pitying in the part of Miss Barrett. She is the epitome of that contemporary yet ancient phenomenon: the dedicated mentor with the maternal instinct.

| Jul 6, 2022

We need more American films like Up the Down Staircase. We need more films that might be concerned, even remotely, with real experiences that might once have happened to real people. And we need more actresses like Sandy Dennis.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jul 6, 2022

In the final examination it is like the student who gets an average grade when he's capable of a 95 -- the underachiever.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 5, 2022

"Teach's" trials do get a bit laborious -- and the theater seat gets a little hard -- before the 124 minutes are spent.

| Jul 5, 2022

Up the Down Staircase... has a whole slew of these youthful actors, and they give the film a charm and authenticity that makes it thoroughly enjoyable.

| Jul 5, 2022

With only one major star (Sandy Dennis) and virtually a single setting, this pic is nevertheless thoroughly cinematic and completely engrossing. This is mainly because it is well acted, carefully scripted and directed and finely photographed.

| Jul 5, 2022

Staircase is improbable because it is basically untruthful, but, paradoxically, it leaves a final impression of almost-honesty.

| Jul 5, 2022

[Dennis gives] a superb performance in a superb film.

| Jul 5, 2022

Sandy Dennis, who soared to film fame and an Academy Award in one of her first movies, scores a new hit in her latest picture Up the Down Staircase.

| Jul 5, 2022

There are touching but too heavily pointed vignettes, peculiarly affectless readings from some of the young actors, and a coy score.

| Jul 5, 2022

Up the Down Staircase is not a bad picture. At moments it is a good one. but for a film adapted from the Kaufman hook and directed by Mulligan, it is not good enough.

| Jul 1, 2022

An intelligent, honest story aided by a consistently strong cast and a sensible screenplay by Pulitzer Prize-winner Tad Mosel.

| Jul 1, 2022

Let me make it clear that I liked most of the movie that I was properly surprised by several off-castings... and that I involuntarily shed some tears at the end. But it was all despite the focus of the film and the faulty central characterization.

| Jul 1, 2022

Up the Down Staircase can be considered a failure for asking questions it is afraid to answer.

| Jul 1, 2022

There's a great array of talent in Up The Down Staircase, some old, some new, some veteran and some, until this movie, hardly even amateur. All work together, however, in the, interests of a film... that will take its place among the best of the year.

| Jul 1, 2022

Up the Down Staircase is a problem drama and while most of the problems remain unsolved it still has a satisfying significance as a commentary on the education of youth.

| Jul 1, 2022

Teachers and students, whatever their own educational niche, should be able to testify to the authenticity of the goings-on. And though similar events and problems have been utilized for other pictures, few have made such interesting use of the materials.

| Jul 1, 2022

[Patrick] Bedford, Eileen Heckart and Ruth Whits an excellent as other teachers, and the pupils, whether professional or amateur, are realistic.

| Jul 1, 2022