High School Confidential
Director: Jack Arnold
Year: 1958
Rating: 5.0
I would be curious to know what teenage audiences
back in 1958 thought of this film that is both a screed against drugs and
a hormonal cry for release. With all of its slang half the time I didn't
know what they were saying but then I am just a Big Daddy drag who can't
dig keen if I tripped over it. It should have been a lot more fun with Jerry
Lee Lewis providing some beats and Mamie Van Doren giving out pointers that
could poke an eye out, but it is a bit of a slog.
Russ Tamblyn (Seven Brides for Seven Brothers) is a high school transfer
from Chicago full of bad ass sass and obnoxious manners. He is staying with
his "aunt" Mamie who comes on to him like a boa in heat. Van Doren doesn't
get nearly enough screen time but when she does she sizzles shot generally
in profile by director Jack Arnold. Tamblyn's high school counselor is a
sleek well-coiffed blonde (Jan Sterling) who tries to settle him down by
asking him to come over for tea.
But bad boy Tamblyn is only interested in one thing - selling drugs - Maryjane
and horse - and he hooks up with Kitten (Diane Jergens) a cute blond minx
who spends most of her time begging for her next hit of marijuana that she
is hooked on like a fish on the line. For a hip film about drugs and unfulfilled
desire it sure is square. In what can't be a coincidence - the sons of Charlie
Chaplin, William Wellman, John Barrymore - are all cast in this. Michael
Landon plays one of the good kids and Jackie Coogan who of course famously
co-starred with Chaplin is in it as well.
