High School Confidential [Blu-ray]

Overview

Producer Albert Zugsmith serves up another all-star exposé with High School Confidential. Delivering a superb performance under the circumstances, Russ Tamblyn heads the cast as "typical" high schooler Tony Baker. Usually seen in the company of his voluptuous "aunt" Gwen Dulaine (the truly impressive Mamie Van Doren), Tony convinces one and all that he's looking for kicks of the controlled-substance kind. In truth, however, our hero is really an undercover narcotics agent named Mike Wilson, bound and determined to smash the operation of drug lord Mr. A. (Jackie Coogan). The once-in-a-lifetime cast includes such worthies as John Drew Barrymore (Drew Barrymore's daddy), Ray Anthony (then married to Mamie Van Doren), Charles Chaplin Jr., Michael Landon, and Jerry Lee Lewis as "himself." This updated Reefer Madness is not to be missed!

Product Details

Release Date:	08/26/2014
UPC:	0887090079808
Original Release:	1958
Rating:	NR
Source:	Olive
Presentation:	[B&W]
Language:	English
Time:	1:26:00
Sales rank:	16,371

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Russ Tamblyn	Tony Baker
Jan Sterling	Arlene Williams
John Drew Barrymore	J.I. Coleridge
Jackie Coogan	Mr. A
Mamie Van Doren	Gwen Dulaine
Diane Jergens	Joan Staples
Jerry Lee Lewis	Himself
Ray Anthony	Bix
Charles Chaplin Jr.	Quinn
Burt Douglas	Jukey Judlow
Michael Landon	Steve Bentley
Jody Fair	Doris
Phillipa Fallon	Poetess
Robin Raymond	Kitty
James Todd	Jack Staples
Lyle Talbot	William Remington Kane
William Wellman Jr.	Wheeler-Dealer
Joe Foster	Henchman
Diana Darrin	Gloria
Carl Thayler	Petey
Irwin Berke	Morino
Kim Chance	Waitress
Della Malzahn	Woman at Race
Gil Perkins	Police Sergeant
Ernst Von Theumer	Actor
Pierre Watkin	David Wingate

Technical Credits

Jack Arnold	Director
Albert Zugsmith	Producer

Editorial Reviews

The 1950s focused considerable attention on "the youth problem" (i.e., middle-class kids, bored with their lives, who turned to various forms of "delinquency," including drug use). High School Confidential was one of many teen exploitation pics of the period that supposedly dealt "seriously" with the issue, but really existed just to make a quick return on a low investment. Seen today, many of these films are tremendously entertaining -- the kind of film one laughs at rather than with. Confidential is definitely in this category, a pretty bad movie that is so deliciously dated that it's fun. The dialogue is classic '50s teen lingo as filtered through a Hollywood screenwriter's sensibility -- "I'm looking to graze on grass" and "Why don't we cut out, go to your pad, and live it up?" And John Drew Barrymore's totally hep retelling of the Christopher Columbus story has to be heard to be believed. Under the circumstances, the cast acquits itself rather admirably. Russ Tamblyn brings real commitment to his role and delivers the ludicrous dialogue as if it made sense, and Mamie van Doren is a perfect hoot as his sex-obsessed aunt. The "cool" soundtrack, including contributions by Jerry Lee Lewis, is a definite plus. Tamblyn would have much better luck with West Side Story a few years later.

All Movie Guide - Craig Butler