<P> Up the Down Staircase is a 1967 American drama film about the first, trying assignment for a young, idealistic teacher played by Sandy Dennis . Robert Mulligan directed the film and Tad Mosel wrote the screenplay adaptation of the novel of the same name by Bel Kaufman . </P> <P> The film's title is a reference to the staircases inside a public, overcrowded New York City high school of 3,000 students, many of them troubled . Sylvia Barrett, fresh out of graduate school, has just been hired to teach English to the teens in this place, who come from various races and ethnicities . Many are undisciplined; a few are hanging with gangs . She is disheartened that she came to teach but finds that her time seems burdened with the school's required regulations, daily reporting and other paperwork . Her students also seem continually disruptive and playful. Student Alice has a crush on a male teacher and narrowly avoids death after jumping out a school window; Student Linda gets a black eye from her father . Student Joe is on court probation, with a high I.Q. but a mixed academic record, testing her patience; student Roy works nights and falls asleep in class . Not everyone is agreeable with Sylvia's quiet approach to the situation, but she intends to get the teens to become good students and get them into real learning . She succeeds finally in getting them into a lively discussion about classic literature (comparing "the best of times...the worst of times" to their own lives), followed by a lively mock trial, before weighing whether to continue or resign from her position . </P> <Ul> <Li> Sandy Dennis as Sylvia Barrett, English teacher </Li> <Li> Patrick Bedford as Paul Barringer, English teacher and unpublished writer </Li> <Li> Eileen Heckart as Henrietta Pastorfield, English teacher </Li> <Li> Ruth White as Beatrice Schachter, teacher and soon Miss Barrett's mentor </Li> <Li> Jean Stapleton as Sadie Finch, school office staff </Li> <Li> Sorrell Booke as Dr. Bester, school principal </Li> <Li> Roy Poole as Mr McHabe, school vice-principal </Li> <Li> Florence Stanley as Ella Friedenberg, guidance counselor </Li> <Li> Vinnette Carroll as The Mother, student Roy Atkins' guardian, Mrs. Lewes </Li> <Li> Salvatore Rasa as Harry A. Kagan, student council president </Li> <Li> John Fantauzzi as Eddie, a student who drops out </Li> <Li> Maria Landa as Carole Blanca, Alice's friend </Li> <Li> Lewis Wallach as Lou Martin, the class clown </Li> <Li> Jose Rodriguez as Jose Rodriguez, introverted student who blossoms in mock trial </Li> <Li> Ellen O'Mara as Alice Blake, student with crush on Mr. Barringer </Li> <Li> Jeff Howard as Joe Ferone, an intelligent student admitted on school probation </Li> </Ul> <Li> Sandy Dennis as Sylvia Barrett, English teacher </Li>

Who played joe in up the down staircase