Sidney Poitier Movies

“To Sir, With Love II” (1996)

For the rare, thoughtful and very romantic sequel to a classic movie, Sidney Poitier in To Sir, With Love II makes a delightful 90-minute diversion. The Sony Pictures Television film, which aired on CBS on April 7, 1996, was the late director Peter Bogdanovich’s first television picture. If you’ve seen the 1967 original, this’ll be a treat.

To Sir, With Love II’s predictable and enjoyable at once. The late Mr. Poitier recreates his role as British schoolteacher Mark Thackeray, and both Lulu and Judy Geeson reprise their roles in cameo appearances, taking a job on Chicago’s south side for personal reasons. The original story and characters are based on the 1959 novel by E.R. Braithwaite, a black British teacher who was the son of a diamond and gold miner—his parents attended Oxford University—and earned a master’s degree in physics.

In this sequel, widower Th…