High School Confidential!

source: High School Confidential!

Moviecut—High School Confidential!

High School Confidential!

Tony Baker (Russ Tamblyn) is the new kid in school. He keeps trying to get in with the tough crowd. In reality, he's undercover cop Mike Wilson who is there to investigate the burgeoning drug scene. Daddio! This is a big film studio trying to be hip. The highlight may be Jerry Lee Lewis playing the title song with great energy. This has a certain camp value. It's trying to be serious but often comes off as unintentionally funny. Russ Tamblyn seems to be accessing his dance energy and a bit of his future West Side Story for this performance. When J. I. goes to the front of the class to do that long mocking monologue, he hits the nail on the head and takes down the movie itself. Russ is doing a cartoon and he's doing it seriously. That's the duality of this movie. It's 22 Jump Street as both a serious teen TV drama and as a film spoof of that show at the same time.

Okay so the film is more than a bit outdated, but it is still a memorable film as it captures America in the 1950's with adolescents beginning to experiment with marijuana and heroin while drag racing, and of course the cliques with the geeks and the cool kids. The 1950's cars are worth watching the film alone for. There is actually a crime investigation underway, and the mob represented by the bad guy drug dealer named "Mr. A" as the mysterious head honcho who is careful with whom he lets into his inner circle. I enjoyed the film from a nostalgic perspective with the "cool lingo" of the period such as describing marijuana as reefers and/or Mary Jane. The drag racing, the dancing, the music and of course the hip clothes man. I give it a decent 7 out of 10 IMDB rating.

Funny looking back at it now. This is a classic juvenile delinquency melodrama with many familiar faces. Tony Baker(Russ Tamblyn)moves to California from Chicago and he hits the high school hard and heavy to make himself known. He is living with his sex-crazed Aunt Gwen(Mamie Van Doren). Not just wanting to be a stud, but THE stud. He immediately gets into the drug scene and strives to be the top dog dealer. There in the middle of the havoc he has induced, no one knows that he's a narc. Jerry Lee Lewis opens and closes the flick riding on a flatbed truck singing "High School Confidential". Cutie Diane Jergens plays Tony's love interest. Other familiar faces you may recognize: Jan Sterling, Jackie Coogan, Lyle Talbot, Michael Landon, band leader Ray Anthony and John Drew Barrymore, who would become the estranged father of actress Drew Barrymore.

For what it is, a B-movie of the first order, I loved this clunker about marijuana and high school students. Acting skills required for the roles are minimal, nor do any of the teenagers even look like they're under 25 years old. Russ Tamblyn, for all his trying .... well, he should have remained a dancer. Jan Sterling gives an OK performance as the teacher, but it's far below her standards. Mamie Van Doren of the bleach-blond hair and prodigious balcony provides some completely unintended comic relief in the role of the somewhat whorish aunt. The ghastly script only adds to the triumph of this cliché riddled classic. The fight scenes are so fake as to be seen from a mile away. All the young women look like they have some kind of cone-shaped things in their brassieres, according to the fashion of the times. A "must see" for all B-movie lovers.

It's funny, implausible, dated, unrealistic.... and wonderful. Great fun and full of interesting characters. You can never go wrong with Zugsmith. I watched this because of the Zugsmith connection and also to see if Russ Tamblyn could pull off a tough guy role (not any more convincing than Riff in West Side Story, but still an enjoyable performance, as was Riff). Jan Sterling is always a delight. And Mamie Van Doren... enjoyed seeing her paw Tamblyn and thrust her chest out in every scene. Jerry Lee Lewis singing in the opening scene was a bonus (and we hear the song again near the end). The final scene of Tamblyn, Van Doren, etc., riding in the car was the perfect ending to another bizarre Zugsmith production.

You have to love watching a film like this now, its like opening a time capsule. Russ Tamblyn plays Tony Baker, a hood just transferred to this particular high school. The film is almost a cautionary tale about illegal drug use, but it also includes a drag race and a little bit about sexual attraction. Watching it now is also fun because of the people in it: Mr. Tamblyn, Michael Landon, Charlie Chaplin, JR (yes, the tramp's son!), Jackie Coogan (interesting that Chaplin's son and "The Kid" are in the same film), Jerry Lee Lewis (performing the title song) and the attractive Jan Sterling, who plays Miss Williams. Most of the dialogue is slang for those times, which is a lot of fun now. The film is less than 90 minutes long and it rolls along pretty well. Its just great to watch now. Really, enjoy it, its fun.

This movie is deliciously dated. The dialogue is outrageous - especially the scene in the classroom when one of the male students talks about Christopher Columbus going to that "deep pool" of the Alantic Ocean with his "non-stop studs" - which now, out of context, sounds more like a line from a gay porno flick instead of a 1950s b-movie (!). Like many teen romps of the late 50s, the sound track is way cool, with Jerry Lee Lewis doing the opening theme song. Lots of fun. Mamie Van Doren as always, is a treat. The cast includes a lot of people who were in a bunch of 50s flicks together - Jackie Coogan, Russ Tamblyn, Jan "Female on the Beach" Sterling, etc. If you like this film, you'll also like Mamie in "Girls Town".