‘High School Confidential!’ Spills All on Blu-ray August 26
Olive Films will release on August 26 one of the wildest, rockinest, flipped-out flicks of the ‘50s, “High School Confidential” on Blu-Ray and DVD. Directed by Jack Arnold (“Creature from the Black Lagoon,” “The Incredible Shrinking Man”) and released in 1958, this is one of the most memorable and iconic B-movies of all time and remains a campy cult classic with its exploitation essentials of bad girls, fast cars and raunchy rock ‘n’ roll. Part crime story and part teenage delinquency drama, “High School Confidential!” is an unforgettable piece of trashy film history that has incredible subtexts of 1950s pop culture — and transcends the genre.
Fanning the flames of Eisenhower America’s growing paranoia, “High School Confidential!” is the quintessential juvenile delinquency film that celebrates the very sex-drugs-and-rock ‘n’ roll culture it pretends to condemn. Staring Russ Tamblyn as Tony Baker, the new kid at Santa Bellow High, whose cocky attitude and ambitious weed-dealing enable him to infiltrate the gang of a local narcotics boss played by Jackie Coogan. But “High School Confidential!” is much more than a hardboiled crime picture. It’s is a pop-culture touchstone, a “Rebel Without a Cause” without the angst, “The Wild One” but even wilder!
“High School Confidential!” features the sexy and shapely Mamie Van Doren in her most outrageous role, wrapped in tight sweaters that would make Ed Wood jealous! The opening sequence with a piano pounding performance of the theme song by Jerry Lee Lewis on a flatbed truck is one that still sizzles and shakes.
Stars Tamblyn, Van Doren, Coogan, Jan Sterling, John Drew Barrymore, Diane Jergens, Ray Anthony, Charles Chaplin Jr., Michael Landon, Lyle Talbot
