High School Big Shot (1959)

User Rating:

1.7/10   

Director:

Joel Rapp

Writer:

Joel Rapp (written by)

Genre:

Crime | Drama

Tagline:

The kid who showed the big time how!

Plot:

Marv needs money. His unemployed dad is so poor that he makes Marv give up half his last six bucks so...

Plot Keywords:

Delinquent | MST3K

Cast

Tom Pittman	...	Marvin 'Marv' Grant
Virginia Aldridge	...	Betty Alexander
Howard Veit	...	Vince Rumbo (as Howard Veidt)
Malcolm Atterbury	...	Mr. Grant
Stanley Adams	...	Harry March
Louis Quinn	...	Samuel Tallman
Peter Leeds	...	Mr. Carter
John Barrick	...	Larry Walker
Jimmy Murphy	...	Burt Rogers
Byron Foulger	...	Mr. Mathews
Bobby Hall	...	Johnson
Ron Kennedy
Evan Thompson
Bill Coontz
Ellen Atterbury		(as Ellen Hardies)

Also Known As:

The Young Sinners (UK)

Runtime:

70 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Sparta Productions

Goofs:

Continuity: Despite the finale taking place at 11pm, it's obviously broad daylight.

Quotes:

Harry March: I am a thief, not a crook.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Mystery Science Theater 3000: High School Big Shot (#7.18)" (1994)

A good kid that got in with the wrong crowd

**SPOILERS** Not at all popular with the girls in high school young Marvin "Marve" Grant, Tom Pittman is at the end of every school bullies fist for showing them up with his vast knowledge and dedication to study that made him a straight A student.

One afternoon the class bully's girl Betty Alexander, Virginia Aldridge, makes a play for Marve. This has her brutish boyfriend Vince Rumbo,almost punch him out. Betty is failing in English and wan't Marve to do her term paper in order for her to pass which Marve does without thinking of what he's getting into. Later at class the English teacher Mr.Carter, Peter Leeds, realizes that the bird-brained Betty couldn't have wrote such an in-dept report of Shakesepare's works and fails her. Mr. Carter also withdraws a recommendation for Marve, who Mr.Carter knows wrote Betty's report, to get a scholarship for college.

Depressed over what happened Marve tries to get back into the good graces of Betty but the only way she would even talk to him is if he can give her jewelry and furs as well as loads of cash which the poor nerd doesn't have.

At home Marve's dad Mr. Grant, Malcolm Atterbury, a widower is down on his luck and in the dumps being a hopeless alcoholic and out of work which doesn't help Marve's already depressing situation a bit. Later in the film Mr. Grant's depression leads him to hang himself.

Working part-time as a shipping clerk Marve overhears his boss. Mr Mathews, Byron Foulger, talk about a big $1,000,000.00 dope deal he's get planned with one of his gangster friends. Marve realizes this is the chance for him to make it big with Betty by giving her all the things that she always dreamed of. As smart as Marve is in school he's a stupid jerk when it comes to girls not realizing that Betty has no interest in him at all and is only using the poor sap for her own selfish gains.

Getting together with a local hood, who doubles as a liquor store owner, Samuel Tallman, Louis Quinn, and his safe cracking brother-in-law Harry March, Stanly Adams, the three plan to rip off Mr. Matthews office safe before he can make the switch and take off with the million dollars. Mave makes a fatal mistake by boasting to Betty later of his plan and the two-timing gold digger gets in touch with the Neanderthal Vince Rumbo to rip off Marve and his fellow crooks after they get Mr. Mathews cash.

Sad ending to a sad story with Betty getting gunned down by an outraged Vince who finally realized what a snake she really is with him getting shot and killed in return in a shootout with the police and the Mathews gang. Marve who had a bright future ends up behind bars with nothing to look forward too but a six by eight foot cell and a social security check when he's finally released from prison in some 30 to 50 years.

It's sad that actor Tom Pittman died on Halloween 1958 in car smash-up on a California highway. Pittman's brief film career included his first movie in 1957 with director's John Frankenheimer's first motion picture "The Young Stranger" and his last cult director Samuell Fuller's very underrated and almost unknown post World War Two Germany classic "Verboten" in 1959 released, like High School Big Shot, the year after Pittman's death.