BLACKBOARD JUNGLE (1955) - Racial and sexual tensions. Violence. Gangs. Apathy. Hot-button issues in schools today were tackled in Blackboard Jungle with Glenn Ford as an idealistic inner-city teacher and Sidney Poitier in a star-making performance as a teen misfit. EDGE OF THE CITY (1957) - Two laborers (Poitier and John Cassavetes) face corruption on the New York waterfront and bond across society"s black/white divide in this directing debut by Martin Ritt (Sounder Norma Rae). The powerful cast includes Jack Warden and Ruby Dee. SOMETHING OF VALUE (1957) - In colonial Kenya former childhood playmates Peter (Rock Hudson) and Kimani (Poitier) have maintained a deep if unlikely friendship. But with the bloody Mau Mau uprising the men discover that even the strongest bond may not be stronger than the cry for freedom. A PATCH OF BLUE (1965) - Selina (Elizabeth Hartman) is blind and white. Helping her see the world anew is kindly Gordon Ralfe (Poitier) who is black though Selina doesn"t know it. This impactful fi lm won Shelly Winters an Oscar-®* for her role as Selina"s bigoted abusive mother.