Stubs - High School Confidential!

High School Confidential! (1958) Starring Russ Tamblyn, Jan Sterling, John Drew Barrymore, Mamie Van Doren, Diane Jergens, Jerry Lee Lewis. Directed by Jack Arnold. Screenplay by Lewis Meltzer, Robert Blees. Produced by Albert Zugsmith. Run time: 86 minutes. Black and White. USA. Drama

Following the death of Jerry Lee Lewis, "The Killer", on October 28th 2022, it was time to finally watch his appearance in High School Confidential!, an MGM film released while Lee was still a big rock and roll star.

Jerry Lee Lewis sings the title song.

Sadly, he is not the star of the film and only makes an appearance during the credits. Sitting in the Jerry Lee Lewis Music Truck, he is driven through the town singing the title song “High School Confidential” on the first day of school. I don’t know about you, but that never happened when I went to school.

New student and tough guy Tony Baker (Russ Tamblyn) arrives on campus.

The first day of school at Santa Bella high school brings the arrival of Tony Baker (Russ Tamblyn), a seventh-year High School student fresh from his transfer from Chicago. An orphan, Tony lives with his lonely and horny aunt, Gwen Dulaine (Mame Van Doren).

As soon as Tony hits campus, he flirts with Joan Staples (Diane Jergens), the rich and pretty girlfriend to school tough J. I. Coleridge (John Drew Barrymore). He also befriends Petey (Carl Thayler), a kid that happens to be standing there, who tells Tony who is who at the school.

Teacher, Miss Arlene Williams (Jan Sterling), catches Tony's eye.

Tony goes to the principal’s office, but the principal is out at the moment. After terrorizing a couple of office workers, he goes to his homeroom. Arlene Williams (Jan Sterling) is trying to teach the class about slang when Tony enters. He makes an early out after harassing Miss Williams to the point that she sends him down to the principal’s office.

This time the principal, Mr. W. O. Robinson (Charles Halton), is in. After calmly talking to Tony and warning him to straighten up and fly right, he’s sent back to class.

Undercover aunt Gwen Dulaine (Mame Van Doren) makes a play for Tony.

Having established himself as a rowdy troublemaker at school, Tony returns home to the apartment he shares with Gwen, who is posing as Tony’s aunt. She’s restless and bored because her husband (Steve Ellis) is out of town and flirts with Tony. He is disinterested in her advances and cautions her to maintain her cover.

Police commissioner Walter Burroughs (Ned Wever) tells teachers to be on the lookout for drugs.

A few days later, city police commissioner Walter Burroughs (Ned Wever) is meeting with Robinson and some of the high school teachers, including Miss Williams, to discuss the dangers of drug addiction and its encroachment into public schools. He’s full of examples, including schools in which nearly a quarter of the kids where addicted to heroin and marijuana, also called Mary Jane and tea.

Back in school, Steve Bentley (Michael Landon), the head of a drag car racing group called the Rangers, approaches Tony about joining, but he refuses.

Tony overhears a conversation between Joan and J. I. and learns that Joan smokes marijuana and is strung out, needing a fix, but she doesn’t have enough money to make a purchase.

The next afternoon, after school, Miss Williams’ car stalls. Tony, who happens to be waiting in his car, offers her a ride home. Against her better judgment, Miss Williams gets in the car. On the way, she counsels him to tone down his belligerent behavior, but he remains cavalier.

Meanwhile, Joan goes shopping and charges two $75 dresses to her father’s account. We find out that the store is in on it and the dresses are overpriced and Joan gets a kickback from the store. She needs $25 to make her score but they only give her $15, take it or leave it. She takes it.

Beat poet (Phillipa Fallon) entertains at the club. Notice who is on the keyboards.

Later, at the local club that night, Joan brings a small amount of money, but is dismayed when J. I. tells her that it is still inadequate to “score” a “hit.” Tony arrives and, while dancing with Joan, suggests that he might be able to help her acquire some marijuana.

The next day, at a swimming party at Joan’s home, Tony admits that he has been unable to secure any marijuana, prompting Joan to reveal that she usually buys from Jukey Judlaw (Burt Douglas). But one girl at the party, Doris (Jody Fair), is having issues. It seems she’s addicted to heroin, her arm covered with needle marks, and desperately needs a fix. Tony warns Joan that hard drugs are the inevitable result of marijuana addiction.

Later that night, Tony meets Jukey and asks to buy five pounds of marijuana, but Jukey insists that he only sells individual marijuana “sticks” or cigarettes at $1 a pop. Jukey does offer to introduce Tony to his supplier the following evening at the teenagers’ makeshift drag racetrack.

The next day at school, Miss Williams meets privately with Tony and asks him to join her after-school program for students with difficulties. Tony scoffs at the idea and refuses.

That night, Tony picks up Joan on the way to track. Her father (James Todd) pontificates to the children and his wife (Florida Friebus) how overblown he thinks the commissioner is making the issue with narcotics. He recalls sneaking drinks during Prohibition and doesn’t think there’s any harm in the kids having fun as long as they stay off drugs. Tony only admits that he’s read about narcotics and Joan even denies reading about them.

However, on the way to the drag racetrack, Joan happily smokes a “joint” and is surprised when Tony turns her down. He claims his only interest in marijuana is as a business.

At the track, Tony asks J. I. if he knows the name of Jukey’s supplier and J. I. reveals that he is the local dealer working for a key supplier named Mr. A. Tony buys all of J. I.’s marijuana, 100 joints, which he then packs into his car’s hubcap.

During the race against Steve and three other boys, Tony’s car gets hit and the hubcap gets loose. When the police arrive, all the cars scatter, but they get pinned in. When Tony suddenly stops, the hubcap falls off and the police find his stash.

Along with several other teens, Tony and Joan are arrested. Joan’s father comes to take her home, threatening to sue the police on the way out. Tony pleads innocent and is surprised to be bailed out by attorney William Remington Kane (Lyle Talbot), whom he learns works for Mr. A.

At school the next day, Miss Williams expresses concern over Tony’s arrest and when he responds flippantly, she goes to Tony’s apartment to confront Gwen about the situation. Gwen, who is drinking heavily, defends Tony, but when he arrives later, she makes vague threats to expose him if their masquerade does not end soon.

J. I. interrupts Tony’s date with Joan.

Gwen wants to go out with him, but he turns her down. Later, at the local club that night, where Jerry Lee is playing, J. I. interrupts Tony’s date with Joan to take him to see Mr. A. Tony is able to warn fellow police agent Quinn (Charles Chaplin Jr.), who is posing as a waiter, about the plan.

J. I. and Tony are driven by Mr. A’s assistant Bix (Ray Anthony) to an office where J. I. introduces Tony to Mr. August (Jackie Coogan), the drug supplier, who owns the local club and plays in the house band.

Mr. A (Jackie Coogan) makes Tony inject heroin.

Mr. A. reveals that he has had Tony investigated and although he checks out, he wants to verify that Tony was once a heroin user. Mr. A offers Tony an injection and, after palming a small rubber ball, Tony feigns taking the drug by injecting it into the ball. Mr. A, who had his own sleeve rolled up, reveals that he has no intention of injecting the stuff himself. But Mr. A agrees to sell Tony a large drug supply.

On a stretch of road, later that evening, Tony reports to his police superior that they can make an arrest as soon as he receives the drugs from Mr. A.

At home that night, Tony starts to listen to the secret audio recording that he made of his meeting with Mr. A. and discovers Joan, high on marijuana, waiting in his room. When Bix calls a few moments later to tell Tony to meet him immediately, Tony telephones Miss Williams and pleads with her to come over and help Joan.

On his way out, Gwen returns home with her date from the evening.

Gwen tries to put a stop to J.I. and Jukey's attack on Joan and Miss Williams.

Miss Williams arrives after Tony has left and struggles to calm Joan, who is searching desperately for a “joint.” Soon afterward, J. I. and Jukey come by the apartment and, finding Tony absent, order Joan to stop seeing him. The men terrorize the women and even the appearance of Gwen with a bottle doesn’t slow them down, as they attack her as well. Trying to trade info for a joint, Joan tells them that she overheard a tape Tony recorded with Mr. A's voice on it. J.I. calls to warn Mr. A about the setup.

Steve (Michael Landon) and the Rangers help subdue Mr. A's mob.

Meanwhile, at the club, Tony meets Bix and Mr. A. in the kitchen, but just after Tony receives the drug supply, J. I. telephones. Mr. A. then searches Tony and finds a recording wire on him. Meanwhile, out on the club floor, Quinn reveals his identity to Steve and asks him for the Rangers' help. When Mr. A. attempts to shoot Tony, he escapes and a fight breaks out. With the assistance of Steve and his gang, Mr. A. and his cohorts are overpowered, although Quinn is killed.

In a narrated (Ned Wever) epilogue, we learn that Mr. A. and Bix are arrested and convicted and J. I. and Jukey are placed in juvenile detention. We even learn that Gwen is better now that her husband has returned.

An anti-drug film, High School Confidential! is a better film than say Reefer Madness, but it tries to make the same, and misleading, point that marijuana will lead to heroin addiction. Marijuana as a gateway drug to the hard stuff, narcotics, has been disproved, but I’m sure this was the prevailing wisdom at the time. While Reefer Madness is so over-the-top that it’s funny, High School Confidential is not as much fun to watch.

The only real action is the car race sequence, but that’s not really all that exciting. Cars run into each other, but no one is hurt, even though one of the cars overturns in the race. There really is never a sense of danger, as there is with the game of chicken in Rebel Without a Cause (1955).

It might surprise you, but the film was considered a hit. When it was released on June 13, 1958, it would go on to make $1,915,000 and turn a profit of $532,000.

Russ Tamblyn, who plays Tony and his real identity undercover officer Mike Wilson, presents a character that is hard to like. A real juvenile delinquent in the film, Tamblyn was in his early twenties when he made the film, too old for high school everywhere but Hollywood.

A former child actor, in such films as The Kid from Cleveland (1949) and Gun Crazy (1950), Tamblyn would make the change to adult star in such films as Peyton Place (1957), and Tom Thumb (1958). Perhaps his greatest success would come playing Riff, the leader of the Jets gang in West Side Story (1961), for which he would receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

Mamie Van Doren, who plays his horny fake aunt, was only a few years older than Tamblyn. Her status as a sex symbol is played up even when she’s dressed down. Her biggest assets are always prominent when she’s on the screen. Van Doren’s film career started with Footlight Varieties (1951). She worked at Universal, but never got the breakthrough roles she wanted and left.

She did get a breakthrough role in Warner Bros’ Untamed Youth (1951). In that film, Van Doren became the first actress to sing rock 'n roll in an American musical film. Studios wanted to make Van Doren into the next Marilyn Monroe and although she had bigger measurements, she didn’t necessarily have bigger talent or sex appeal. She would continue to appear in such films as College Confidential (1960) and Sex Kittens Go to College (1960), which, like High School Confidential, were Albert Zugsmith productions.

Unlike his father, Charles Chaplin, Jr. would have a rather short and undistinctive career, appearing in only a handful of films from his uncredited appearance in his father’s Limelight (1952) to Sex Kittens in College (1960). He would die in 1968 at the age of 42.

William Wellman, Jr. would not reach the fame of his father, but he would have a much longer one than Chaplin Jr. High School Confidential would be his sixth film, but he would end up with 89 acting credits on the big screen and television, including westerns like Gunsmoke and Rawhide; soap operas, like Days of Our Lives; and space, appearing in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

Michael Landon, having already made I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957), would go on to bigger things, appearing in the long-running Bonanza (1959-1973) as Little Joe and then finding success as Charles Ingalls in Little House on the Prairie (1974-83).

I want to make note of Jackie Coogan, who does a better-than-expected turn as Mr. A. He was only 7 when he starred opposite Charlie Chaplin in The Kid (1921), making him one of the first child stars of Hollywood. His treatment by his parents (mother and stepfather), who squandered most of his earnings, led to the California Child Actors Bill, widely known as the Coogan Act. Despite early fame, he's best remembered for his role as Uncle Fester in the original The Addams Family TV Series, which ran from 1964 to 1966.

Jerry Lee Lewis’ appearance came just as scandal was derailing his rock and roll career. He would marry Myra Lee Williams, his first cousin once removed when she was only 13 years old on December 12, 1957, which would be revealed in May 1958 when Lewis arrived in London for the start of a tour that would get canceled when the news got out. I’m a little surprised, given the film didn’t come out until June, that he wasn’t replaced, but I have to guess by then it was too late to make a change. That said, he might be the best reason to see the film.

None of the acting is really great, as most of the characters are very one-dimensional. This is a film with a message and that is what takes precedence over everything else. Just because drugs are bad, it doesn’t mean you have to make a mediocre film, which this is.