The sensational novel...now on the screen!

Richard Dadier is a man eager to make a difference. Or, some might say, hes a believer in lost causes. Dadier is a new teacher at inner-city North Manual High.Racial and sexual tensions. Violence. Gangs. Apathy. What Blackboard Jungle tackled years ago are still hot-button issues in schools. Glenn Ford as Dadier clings to his ideals and pays a price vying with teen misfits led by Vic Morrow and, in a star-making performance, a too-cool-to-cope Sidney Poitier. Directed by Richard Brooks, Blackboard Jungle is brisk, urgent, powerful. And it starts with the influential Rock Around the Clock, said to be the first use of rock n roll in a mainstream movie.Think it'll catch on?