High School Confidential | 
| Director: Jack Arnold
Actors: Russ Tamblyn, Jan Sterling, John Drew Barrymore, Mamie Van Doren, Diane Jergens
Studio: Republic Pictures
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.98
Buy New: $8.71
You Save: $6.27 (42%)
New (22) Used (8) from $6.98
Rating:  18 reviews
Sales Rank: 31184
Format: Black & White, Dvd, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), Spanish (Published)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 85 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: LGED14895D
UPC: 017153148954
EAN: 0017153148954
ASIN: B0002235LM
Theatrical Release Date: June 13, 1958
Release Date: June 15, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Studio: Lions Gate Home Ent. Release Date: 06/15/2004 Rating: Nr
Amazon.com
Is it a serious look at drug addiction and the "narcotics problem," or is it pure exploitation? Well, High School Confidential opens up with Jerry Lee Lewis rolling into town on a flatbed truck, pummeling an upright piano as he bellows one of his hits, so that should tell you something right off. Eminently slappable punk Russ Tamblyn enrolls at the local high school and immediately starts to hit on the teacher (Jan Sterling). Soon he proves that he's even cooler than jive-talking king daddy-o John Drew Barrymore (Drew's dad), and is getting acquainted with the local dope peddler (Jackie Coogan). Never mind that Barrymore should be able to pick him up over his head and throw him; Tamblyn has a switchblade at the ready should trouble break out. At home, he's constantly fending off the amorous advances of his "aunt," Mamie Van Doren. Of course, Russ's character is a narc, sent undercover to infiltrate the school dope ring. High School Confidential's cast includes Lyle Talbot, Michael Landon and famous offspring William Wellman Jr., and Charlie Chaplin Jr. Fifties teen movies (and drug-hysteria movies) just don't come any better than this; simultaneously absurd, exciting, and hilarious. --Jerry Renshaw
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| Customer Reviews: Read 13 more reviews...
 "You're draggin' your rear axle in waltz time" March 9, 2006
Charlie (Philadelphia, PA USA)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
I LOVE High School Confidential. I find it to be campy, yet very well made. I think the acting is good, the action scenes are exciting and I was genuinely surprised by the plot twist. And the dialog, dripping with 1950's hep-talk, is the most daddio!
Unfortunately this dvd is very bare bones, without even the theatrical trailer which was included on the laserdisc edition. But on the plus side it's in widescreen (as a previous reviewer noted, the box incorrectly indicates that it's full screen.)
When I think of Russ Tamblyn, I don't think of West Side Story, I think of High School Confidential. (I also think of Dracula vs. Frankenstein, but that's another story.)
HIGH SCHOOL HOP (HEADS).... June 16, 2004
Mark Norvell (HOUSTON)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
Drugs infiltrate a small town high school and swaggering young "stud" Tony Baker (Russ Tamblyn) makes the scene as a new student unsubtly "grazing for grass". He encounters a sympathetic teacher (Jan Sterling), "pretty kitten" Joan Staples (Diane Jergens), her pusher boyfriend with a hillbilly accent (John Drew Barrymore) and assorted other "teens" including Michael Landon as well as the infamous "Mr.A" (Jackie Coogan). These characters swirl around a delirious plot involving "weed heads" and busting a narcotics ring. There's a drag race, beat slang, switchblades, a serious lecture on the danger of "marijuana addiction", racy dialogue and hilarity to spare. And speaking of busts, there's Mamie Van Doren as Tony's "guardian aunt" with more than a healthy yen for the skinny guy. She parades around in several sexy outfits and actually delivers a funny performance. She apparently wisely knew this was anything but serious material. When you've got Jerry Lee Lewis opening the film on the back of a truck singing "High School Hop" how can you go wrong? "High School Confidential" is a deliciously trashy JD exploitation flick that makes an OK transition to DVD. It's not the best print but it's in good shape and very watchable. I'm very happy to have it. Bare Bones and all. Good deal, man.
Insane February 25, 2005
Kevin Killian (San Francisco, CA United States)
13 out of 15 found this review helpful
Robert Blees, who wrote this masterpiece of kitsch, had the strangest career. He was responsible for the screenplays of some of Universal's biggest hits (and biggest duds) and he did wonderful work for Douglas Sirk, including writing THE MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION and ALL I DESIRE. Among his strengths was an ability to write for women, both veterans and newcomers, in a way that showcased their greatest talents. Thus, the "aunt" played by Mamie Van Doren in HIGH SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL proves to be the best part of the film. (Blees also wrote AUTUMM LEAVES as a vehicle for Joan Crawford, and gave the young Tuesday Weld a helping hand by showcasing her in his TV version of BUS STOP--where she sings the old standard "Temptation" in an amazing sequence).
He worked for years on a screen version of Tappan's fantasy masterpiece ISLANDIA that, alas, came to nothing. But it is for films like HIGH SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL that he is best known today--lurid, over-the-top potboilers sizzling with kitsch and bad taste, probing into the sick underbelly of American society. Rather late for noir, Blees' later films are doing their best to invent a category all their own. Between this and the similarly unconventional SCREAMING MIMI, with Anita Ekberg, there was nothing really left for Quentin Tarantino to do.
And then there was WHO SLEW AUNTIE ROO . . . DR PHIBES RISES AGAIN . . . Insane!
For those so inclined, a masterwork. March 5, 2002
Doghouse King (Omaha, NE United States)
9 out of 10 found this review helpful
... let me tell you, this is the one. High School Confidential has it all, everything you're seeking in disreputable youth-gone-wild 50's entertainment. This is juvenile delinquent movie Ground Zero, covering all but one of the categories that make this brand of escapism what it is:
1. Cars/racing;
2. Gangs/crime rings/rumbles;
3. A high school setting;
4. Rock 'n' roll;
5. Parties (pool, beach, dance, etc.);
6. "Controlled substances;
7. Leather jackets, poodle skirts, et al;
8. Dysfunctional families;
9. Outmoded acting;
10. Ridiculous dialogue;
11. Over-the-top histrionics (see #9);
12. "Messages" many will find dated;
13. Mamie Van Doren.It lacks only a scene in a malt shop to fill out the Eisenhower-era roster. I am willing to overlook that due to the unbelievable cast. Mamie is just one of the draws, if you can believe it. See also: Russ Tamblyn; John Drew Barrymore; Jerry Lee Lewis (playing piano on a pickup truck!); Charles Chaplin, Jr.; William Wellman, Jr.; Michael Landon; and Jackie Coogan as the Drug Kingpin! Note I never said it was a *good* cast, merely an unbelievable one. And it's directed by Jack (Creature From the Black Lagoon) Arnold! Huzzah!! MST3K skewered their share of these kind of films; perhaps with this one, like Plan 9, they saw too great a challenge in improving upon it, and passed it by. (Although it would've been great fodder, and interesting to see what they could've come up with.) So... if you want to bask (or perhaps wallow) in all that is JD, pick this up. It will make you smile; it will also likely make you wince with discomfort. If you want a good movie, one that will make you think, get East of Eden. P.S. The tape is not that great, but what in the sockhop do you expect?
A MUST SEE FOR FOLLOWERS OF CAMP August 3, 1999
walter flakus (Macomb, ILMacomb, IL USA)
9 out of 10 found this review helpful
The five stars are strictly for now what looks like a humorous approach to the high school days of the late '50s and early 60s. At the time it was taken seriously as an accurate and "hip" approach to high school. Mamie Van Doren is luscious; Jan Sterling as her own great self. Russ Tamblyn etc. When the principal disciplines his "juvenile delinquents" in his office by telling them to put out their cigarettes and sit down. they actually do so.All well worth seeing.
The VHS, by the way, is thankfully done in widescreen.
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