Tags
Creative Writing, Lulu, Memories, Movies, Music Clips, Saturday Sing-a-long, To Sir With Love, Video Clips, Writing 101
Am feeling kind of sentimental tonight so thought I’d pick one of my favorite movies from my high school years– To Sir With Love. It may not have gotten the best reviews, but if it had anything to do with music and came out of Britain, I LOVED it!
To Sir, with Love
newexcaliburconsulting.com
To Sir, with Love is a 1967 Technicolor British drama film, starring Sidney Poitier, that deals with social and racial issues in an inner-city school. James Clavell directed and wrote the film’s screenplay, based on E. R. Braithwaite’s semi-autobiographical novelTo Sir, With Love (1959).
The film’s title song “To Sir With Love”, sung by Lulu, reached number one on the U.S. pop charts for five weeks in the autumn of 1967 and ultimately was Billboard magazine’s No. 1 pop single for that year. The movie ranked number 27 on Entertainment Weekly‘s list of the 50 Best High School Movies.
And yet it was not well received. Typical reviews stated:
–To Sir, with Love comes off as a cozy, good-humored and unbelievable little tale. (Bill Crowther, The New York Times)
—Halliwell’s Film and Video Guide describes it as “sentimental non-realism” and quotes a Monthly Film Bulletin review (possibly contemporary with its British release), which claims that “the sententious script sounds as if it has been written by a zealous Sunday school teacher after a particularly exhilarating boycott of South African oranges.”
—The Time Out Film Guide says that it “bears no resemblance to school life as we know it” and the “hoodlums miraculous reformation a week before the end of term (thanks to teacher Poitier) is laughable.”
Despite the bad reviews, it was the eighth highest grossing picture of 1967 in the US. (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.)
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Lulu
The soundtrack album features music by Lulu, The Mindbenders, and incidental music by Ron Grainer. The original album was released on Fontana Records. It was re-released onto CD in 1995.
Lulu Kennedy-Cairns, OBE (born Marie McDonald McLaughlin Lawrie, 3 November 1948), best known by her stage name Lulu, is a Scottish singer, actress, and television personality who has been successful in the entertainment business since the 1960s. [And a bit of trivia here, she was married to Maurice Gibbs of the Bee Gees for a time. Their marriage broke up because of his drinking.] (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.)
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And just in case you’ve never seen the movie, here’s the tail end of it…
Impromptu Promptlings 
Hi Calen,
Absolutely, positively, and without question, one of my all time favourite movies ever. Like Fim, I don’t listen to reviews either, I like to judge for myself. I knew all the words to the song and would sing it at the top of my lungs (much to the chagrin of the neighbourhood dogs though I must say).
Clare
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I think I loved the movie so much because it made me cry. If a movie or a book can move me to tears, I’ll watch it over and over again. (Those are the books I don’t get rid of!)
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I am exactly the same. Bring on the tears 😢
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Beaches was probably one of my worst. That was a two-box Kleenex movie!
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I’ve too many to pinpoint only one, but Sam carrying Frodo up Mt Doom was my complete undoing – I was still crying 30 minutes after the movie finished.
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😀 https://promptlings.wordpress.com/2015/09/15/but-i-love-him-whether-or-no/
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This was, and still is, one of my favorite movies (I don’t pay attention to reviews), and loved Lulu’s song. It touches me (both the movie and song) deeply, and even as I watched the excerpt of the end of the movie, I was crying.
I never thought that anyone else could do that song. But I did hear one not long ago which changed my mind…
Katey Sagal:
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She’s really good. It has a feel of a different century to it, doesn’t it… I have to ask myself why in the world someone would want to do that song since it’s so specific to that movie. I’ve never heard of her, btw…
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There was a show, a sitcom, which she was in … “Married With Children,” which I’d only heard of, but never saw. She’s been in many things, I had not seen, but I did become a fan of hers while watching Sons of Anarchy. She is a musician, and singer, and many of the episodes had her songs.
Yes, there is a feel of a different century. I believe that song was able to work within the SoA episode it was in. There are a lot of kinds of ‘Sirs.’
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Thanks for the post Calen – good song, good singer. There was a time in the early 70s where it felt as though everyone in Britain loved Lulu.She sang nice songs, had a fun, bubbly personality,and (as you say) was married to a BeeGee. Through much of the 70s there was a trend for pop stars to be given Saturday night variety shows – not just Lulu, but Cilla Black and Cliff Richard in particular – which in retrospect were very bad, and led to things like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyfRmlKZW6g. Good grief.
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LMBO! Really??? That was spoiling a great song! Fortunately I don’t remember that one at ALL by her!
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It turned up the other night on a compilation of Dylan covers performed on the BBC over the years – I think she actually did it twice, once in black and white in the late 60s, then this version in 1973. Apparently once wasn’t enough.
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Some songs just torture you. My kids knew if they wanted to get under my skin all they had to do was go around singing the song, “Don’t worry, be happy.” OML! It always drove me nuts. Funny how some songs just grate on your nerves.
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This is a great film, and yes, it has its weaknesses, but cannot be assessed for those lacks, for the message was heartfelt and surprisingly awaited by some in need of it. You would have to be a cynic to critically sum it up based on realistic items lacked. Thank you for bringing this back.
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I think you’re right. Poitier’s character was a shining example of how I’d hoped to be. He wasn’t ALWAYS in control, but I thought the movie showed his inner struggle with that control well.
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I love this song!
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I was surprised to read about all the things Lulu has been involved with over the years and still is. She’s pretty cool.
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I loved this movie. Saw it several times. I had that 45 of Lulu singing this. Wow, takes me back. Thanks!
Mary
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I was so enamored with British movies at that age. I especially loved Haley Mills. One of my favorites of hers was The Family Way with Hywel Bennett and John Mills (her father). I’ve been trying to find a copy of it for years. John Mills was with her in The Chalk Garden with Deborah Kerr as well. But I think my favorite movie of hers is The Moon-Spinners with Peter McEnery. 😀 What a heart throb HE was!
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My first year of teaching, in Australia, I taught in a government housing district in the middle of a steel mill area. It certainly felt like “To Sir With Love!” But, the same results as well. One day I’ll tell the story, but I’ll never write a song this good. I loved it, too–and the movie.
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That’s cool that you taught in Australia, Judy. What did you teach? Was a time I really thought of Australia as really exotic like China. But knowing Kim I realize what a dumb idea THAT was! LOL
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English. Ha! We barely understood each other at first but there is a funny story about how that served me well at first.
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Awesome movie…Awesome song….actually posted LuLu singing To Sir on my FB Page last time we watched the movie!!!!!!
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Boy, it just seems like that was a lifetime ago, doesn’t it? Longer for me than you, though!
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Long time ago..yes. But love Sidney Poitier 😄
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I read his autobiography. I was very impressed with him. His treatment as a black man was deplorable even after he became a major Hollywood star. He had an interesting take on spirituality that I appreciated.
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