Rich kid Matt Stevens understandably feels insecure, having been all but abandoned by his parents who prefer touring Europe to spending time with their son. Stevens is capable of showing a great deal of tenderness and affection to the cook, his surrogate mother, yet at the same time display nothing but total contempt while brow-beating the butler, an obviously inadequate stand-in for his idolized absent father.
At school, he's rigging elections and creating his own little empire which he runs like a seasoned CEO. He's a consummate politician who has the principal eating out of his hand and a tough punk who beats up kids after school while shaking them down for protection payments. In spite of all his skills, he is tragically destined to push things too far and alienate those around him, leading to his inevitable downfall.
The Stevens character is well thought out and excellently portrayed, and the scenes of him running his high school empire like a veteran politician seem somewhat unique for this genre. If all of this sounds like it might be interesting, that's too bad, because the movie as a whole appears to be little more than a poorly scripted low-budget attempt to quickly cash in on the popularity of gang movies in the late 50's.
At school, he's rigging elections and creating his own little empire which he runs like a seasoned CEO. He's a consummate politician who has the principal eating out of his hand and a tough punk who beats up kids after school while shaking them down for protection payments. In spite of all his skills, he is tragically destined to push things too far and alienate those around him, leading to his inevitable downfall.
The Stevens character is well thought out and excellently portrayed, and the scenes of him running his high school empire like a veteran politician seem somewhat unique for this genre. If all of this sounds like it might be interesting, that's too bad, because the movie as a whole appears to be little more than a poorly scripted low-budget attempt to quickly cash in on the popularity of gang movies in the late 50's.