The headliner of the package - High School Big Shot - is actually a film noir in disguise. What starts out as a tale of unrequited teenage lust and ambition detours into a drug money heist plot with dire results for everyone. The title character - Marvin Grant (Tom Pittman) - makes straight A¿s but suffers from low self-esteem until Betty (Virginia Aldridge), the class beauty, appeals to him for some after-school term paper help. We know Betty is no good - after all, her boyfriend Vince (Howard Viet) is the school bad boy - but Marvin falls madly in love, despite Betty's voracious appetite for the finer things in life. Then, while working at his after-school job as a shipping clerk on the waterfront, he overhears his employer discussing a million dollar heroin deal with the arranged time and place for the transaction. That's the set-up but it doesn't begin to describe the quirkier moments of this MacBeth wannabe that features some inappropriate comic relief in the form of Marvin's heist partners (a shady druggist and his safecracker brother-in-law) and an odd father-son relationship; Marvin's divorced, ne'er-do-well dad can't hold a job and constantly sponges off his son. He's not much of a confidence builder either. When Marvin proudly tells him he's dating Betty, the old man counters, "Hey, she's the best looking chick in the whole school, ain't she? What's she going out with you for?" Because Betty knows a sucker when she sees one, Pops! And Virginia Aldridge's stylized performance as the bad seed is one of the pleasures of High School Big Shot. Alternating between a sexy tease and a spoiled brat, she plays the role with barely suppressed glee, unmasking herself as a total sociopath in the final reel. It's a shame her career didn't progress after this. In fact, she only appeared in one more film, demoted to "extra" status; her screen credit reads "gnome-maiden" in the Disney fantasy, The Gnome-Mobile, (1967).
Tom Pittman's performance as Marvin, on the other hand, is at times painful to watch; a bundle of Method acting tics obviously influenced by James Dean at his most overwrought. He was much more promising in Sam Fuller's Verboten! (1959). Unfortunately, High School Big Shot was his last film; he died in a car accident the same year. The print quality of High School Big Shot is fair at best, marred by scratches and frame damage, but it somehow seems appropriate for something that would have turned up at the drive-in in the '50s in a similarly battered state.
In terms of pure fun, High School Caesar is sure to be the disc favorite. Whether viewed as a look at fascism on the rise or a juvenile delinquent version of Little Caesar, it's hard not to enjoy John Ashley's smug self-confidence as a sociopathic rich kid who easily manipulates those around him through simple psychology. Ashley was usually cast as the leading man's best pal in teen flicks of the '50s and '60s (he's a regular fixture in the AIP Beach Party movies as Frankie Avalon's backup) and later as the hero in Filipino horror films such as The Mad Doctor of Blood Island (1968). But Ashley's forte might be slick control freaks like the one he plays in High School Caesar. We know he's a little dictator from the moment we see Matt Stevens, beating up a fellow classmate with the help of his own goon squad, all of whom fall into a goosestep behind him when he leads the way. Matt is not your typical high school hoodlum however. For one thing, he's running for president of the student body. What self-respecting delinquent wants to be class president? One who has the heart of a crooked politician. In record time, Matt throws the student election, is proclaimed king and begins imposing restrictions on those who oppose him. He tries to charge a fee for off-campus drag races, makes unrealistic promises to his flunkies and uses his charm and then intimidation tactics to make Wanda (Judy Nugent), the new girl in school, date him. But Wanda's no fool; she's the real rebel in this film and tells Matt off in front of everyone, "I don't take orders from anybody and especially from a pampered little punk like you." That earns her a hard slap and later a close call at rape in the backseat of Matt's car. And that's only the tip of the Matt Stevens iceberg - the guy is a blackmailer, thief, extortionist and murderer! It finally takes the whole student body to bring him down - after he's roused Wanda's all-American boyfriend to action and alienated his own gang, particularly his prot¿ Crickett (Steve Stevens, now here's a sick master-slave relationship). Despite the amoral behavior on display in High School Caesar, this is a high school where nobody seems to smoke, drink or do drugs. And the chief villain is a textbook example of the pampered but ignored child. While his parents gallivant around Europe, Matt is attended by his much despised butler Carter ("If you can't perform your duties to my satisfaction then I'll just have to replace you") and Lucy, his cook, who seems to function as a substitute mother. In one of the weirder exchanges, Matt gazes at the elderly, overweight woman and says, "Ya know, Lucy, I've been looking at you and you get prettier everyday. I just expect to walk in here one day and find that one of your boyfriends has carried you off for good." And he's being sincere! Lucy takes good care of her boy, even plays his favorite music while she serves him breakfast and it's not rock 'n roll; it sounds more like muzak. The real Matt - the one the students don't see - is an emotional mess, one who cries into his pillow at night, surrounded by relics from his childhood (one great moment - the camera closes in on his bronzed baby shoes atop his bedside radio). Like High School Big Shot, the print quality of this film is serviceable but not pristine by any means. The nicks, blemishes and occasional emulsion mark certainly won't prevent your enjoyment of this twisted little J.D. opus.
Third-billed and the most provocatively titled film in the trio, Date Bait is a melodrama with a Romeo and Juliet subplot. Danny (Gary Clarke, previously seen in Dragstrip Riot, 1958) is from the wrong side of the tracks but he's a good kid and wants to marry Sue (Marla Ryan), despite major resistance from her class-conscious parents, particularly her old man. Meanwhile, Sue's former boyfriend Brad (Dick Gering) has just returned from a treatment center for an undisclosed illness (heroin addiction) and begins stalking Sue's every movement. The fact that his brother Nico is a local racketeer creates a further risk to Danny and Sue's happiness. Despite the rock bottom budget and some lame comic relief provided by Danny's goofball friends, Bud and Frieda, Date Bait is worth seeing for Richard Gering's twitchy, neurotic performance as the ill-fated Brad. In the course of the film, his character tries to knife Danny and rape/strangle Sue ("If I can't have you, no one else will!") yet he still manages to generate some sympathy for his self-destructive character. One peculiar aspect of this film, which binds it to the other two on the DVD, is the depiction of its teenage protagonists (never mind that all the actors look like they're pushing 30). Everyone appears to be the product of a dysfunctional family. In Date Bait, both Danny and Brad are without parents and live with their older brothers; Danny's is completely non-attentive, Brad's is aggressively overprotective. In High School Big Shot, Marvin is viewed as a meal ticket by his father while Betty's dad writes her off as a whore. And in High School Caesar, there are NO parents in sight and no one to care at all about Matt's fate. It's a rough world out there. No wonder these kids have bad attitudes.
Something Weird's "Troubled Teens" triple feature includes a relatively modest offering of disc extras unlike some of their releases which are stocked to the gills with oddball shorts and obscurities. Besides the original theatrical trailer for High School Big Shot, there are trailers for The Choppers (1961), Jacktown (1962), The Violent Years (1956), Wild Guitar (1962) and a gallery of teens-run-wild exploitation art. All in all, a fun disc and recommended for connoisseurs of juvenile delinquency flicks and college professors offering courses in psychology 101.
For more information about the Troubled Teens Triple Feature, visit Image Entertainment. To order the Troubled Teens Triple Feature, go to TCM Shopping.
by Jeff Stafford
