High School Confidential!

The 1950s rage for teenagers-gone-wild movies launched by Blackboard Jungle and Rebel Without a Cause resulted in some unintentionally hilarious portraits of overage actors playing bad kids and youthful gangsters. Jack Arnold's trashy, tawdry, and weirdly energetic 1958 picture about tough-talking delinquents who speak in mock-Beat dialogue is a very silly but also highly entertaining example of drug-scare cinema. Russ Tamblyn stars as Tony Baker, the hep-talking new kid who claims he's going to take over the school gang, but in reality is undercover narcotics agent Mike Wilson, hot on the trail of a drug ring. The film opens with Jerry Lee Lewis pounding out the title song from the back of a pickup truck (his only appearance here) and goes on to deliver a drag race, a Beat poetry recital in a coffee shop, an alcoholic Aunt Gwen (Mamie Van Doren) trying to seduce her “nephew” Tony, teenage addicts in withdrawal, and a brawl that pits the drug dealers against the kids led by good-guy Steve Bentley (Michael Landon). High School Confidential! is pure teensploitation—loaded with bad behavior (and lots of opportunities for adults to pass judgment)—that is utterly ridiculous as social commentary but great fun as a campy take on fears concerning juvenile delinquency. Jan Sterling is also on hand as Arlene Williams, the cool teacher who really wants to understand youth, and John Drew Barrymore, Diane Jergens, Jackie Coogan, and Charles Chaplin Jr. costar. Remastered for its Blu-ray debut and DVD re-release, this is recommended. (S. Axmaker)