High School Confidential! (1958)

A tough kid comes to a new high school and begins muscling his way into the drug scene. As he moves his way up the ladder, a schoolteacher tries to reform him, his aunt tries to seduce him,... See full summary »

Director:

Jack Arnold

Writers:

Robert Blees (screenplay), Robert Blees (story)

Stars:

Russ Tamblyn, Jan Sterling, John Drew Barrymore

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Russ Tamblyn	...	Tony Baker / Mike Wilson
Jan Sterling	...	Arlene Williams
John Drew Barrymore	...	J. I. Coleridge
Mamie Van Doren	...	Gwen Dulaine
Jerry Lee Lewis	...	Jerry Lee Lewis
Ray Anthony	...	Bix
Jackie Coogan	...	Mr. A
Charles Chaplin Jr.	...	Quinn
Diane Jergens	...	Joan Staples
Burt Douglas	...	Jukey Judlow
Michael Landon	...	Steve Bentley
Jody Fair	...	Doris
Phillipa Fallon	...	Poetess
Robin Raymond	...	Kitty
Lyle Talbot	...	William Remington Kane

Storyline

A tough kid comes to a new high school and begins muscling his way into the drug scene. As he moves his way up the ladder, a schoolteacher tries to reform him, his aunt tries to seduce him, and the "weedheads" are eager to use his newly found enterprise, but he has his own agenda. After an altercation involving fast cars, hidden drugs, and police, he's accepted by the drug kingpin and is off into the big leagues. A typical morality play of the era, filled with a naive view of drugs, nihilistic beat poetry, and some incredible '50s slang.

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Plot Keywords:

psychotronic film | teensploitation film | drugsploitation | teensploitation | melodrama | 

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Taglines:

Behind these "nice" school walls... A TEACHERS' NIGHTMARE!...A TEEN-AGE JUNGLE!

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Genres:

Crime | Drama

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

13 June 1958 (USA)

Also Known As:

Young Hellions

Filming Locations:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios - 10202 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Albert Zugsmith Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

85 min

Sound Mix:

Perspecta Stereo (as Perspecta Sound) 4-Track Stereo (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Final film of Charles Halton.

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Quotes

Gwen Dulaine: You looking for excitement?
Tony Baker: Why not? I'm a citizen!

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Connections

Referenced in Film School Confidential (2002)

User Reviews

Notes on some misused talent in campy teen-exploitation flick

There's not much to be said about High School Confidential, a teen exploitation movie from the end of the fabulous ‘fifties, except that it's hard to think that it wasn't just as laughable upon release as it is today. But some comments on its cast members may be in order:

• Russ Tamblyn was a child star, then primarily a dancer. This `dramatic' role fell to him between his memorable assignments in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and West Side Story. He's not at all bad here (in an badly written and implausible role), but was never able to establish himself as a serious actor, though he continued to work, showing up notably decades later in Twin Peaks.

• John Drew Barrymore had just taken up his middle name to distance himself from his legendary father; in earlier roles (The Big Night, While the City Sleeps), he was billed as John Barrymore, Jr. Here he brings off an eerily precise impersonation of Elvis Presley, speaking both in hillbilly accent and in basso-profundo register. (Alas, he does not sing.) It's clear he inherited the family talent, which he was to squander, because he also inherited the predisposition to chemical experimentation.

• Jan Sterling seemed destined for a bigger career than she ended up with. The high points of her filmography – Billy's Wilder's The Big Carnival/Ace In The Hole being the most impressive of them – were behind her, and she was taking secondary roles to the likes of latter-day Joan Crawford ( in Female on The Beach). Here, as a schoolteacher, she not only does a riff on Eve Arden's Our Miss Brooks character, she even looks like Arden.

• The late ‘fifties were the blazing noon of Mamie Van Doren's fling at playing third-string sexpot (after Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield). All Dagmars and platinum hair, she was rarely called upon to display what might have been a comic talent, visible here in fits and starts. Her role as a married nymphomaniac whose attempts at fulfilment – absent her husband – seemed doomed to disappointment is practically a clone of the part she played in The Beat Generation, a slightly more interesting vehicle that covers much of the same ground as High School Confidential.

High School Confidential remains notable from a view of drug trafficking and the process of addiction that had advanced not a whit since Reefer Madness in the ‘thirties. And of course its view of teen-aged life in the second Eisenhower administration bears not the slightest resemblance to any reality – then or now. That said, it's fun to watch.