High School Big Shot (1959)

I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

As Good As It Gets

A Disappointing Continuation

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Joel Rapp writes and directs this low budget flick about teenagers making trouble for themselves. Tom Pittman plays the role of Marv. He's a good guy, but lacks money. Marv is bright and is depending on getting a college scholarship by recommendation from one of his professors. The prettiest girl in his English class, Betty(Virginia Aldridge), manipulates Marv into writing her term paper. Promises of romance has Marv writing the paper; but when the professor realizes that he wrote the paper, he pulls the college recommendation. Betty tells Marv that her affections depend on money and lots of it. Otherwise, she will go back to her old boyfriend, Vince(Howard Veit), who believes he is the high school big shot. At his part-time job, Marv overhears his boss plotting a drug transaction that will be worth a million dollars in cold cash. Being desperate for money, he tells Betty he will come into money soon. Of course, Betty tells Vince, who plans to intercept the robbery. Is this girl worth all the trouble? Other players in the cast: Malcolm Atterbury, Peter Leeds, Byron Foulger, John Barrick and Stanley Adams.

I'd never heard of actor Pittman, but it turns out he was quite a talented, though ill-fated, young guy. Here he goes from painfully shy to confidently assertive in abrupt, but convincing, fashion. I just wish he and the rest of the cast were better served by the script that loses its way about halfway through. Almost matching Pittman in the talent department is actress Aldridge. Her teenage vixen is enough to send Joan Crawford into fits of jealousy. Betty (Aldridge) is so good at using her wiles to manipulate the hapless Marv (Pittman) in the first part that I thought the movie would be exceptional for a drive-in cheapie.Had the screenplay stayed at this sensitive level, namely the ordinary-looking Marv yearning for self-respect amid sneering peers, the potential for something sublime was great. However the script veers off into a sudden and wildly implausible tangent of Marv leading a gang of criminals on a million-dollar heist, ending in as phony a shoot-out as I've seen. Too bad, because the rest of the cast, with the exception of an awkward Veit (Vince), is also unusually good for a cheap production. In my little book, this was a missed opportunity, a teenage film that could have distinguished itself from the many other drive-in specials of the time. Nonetheless, I now know who Tom Pittman is, and in spades.

It's funny, but I can't believe this film has an overall score below 2.0!! That would seem to indicate that this is a truly awful film...yet I liked it despite its limitations and actually recommend you see it.The film is about a bright and seemingly nice young man named Marv. However, despite having excellent grades and a possible future in college, he is a lonely nerd---but the actor playing Marv is 27 years old--far too old to be playing a character who is supposed to be 17! If you can ignore this, what happens next is pretty interesting--even if his character occasionally acts too dumb--showing the writers really weren't that good despite some good story ideas. You see, Marv is supposed to be a genius--yet he also does MANY stupid things...too stupid! When Marv is inexplicably approached by a pretty classmate (Betty), he falls head over heels---as it's the first girl to take notice of him AND she's a hottie. However, Marv isn't aware that this girl is a devil! She really is NOT interested in him but wants to use him to help her to graduate--as without some help (or cheating) she won't graduate. Poor Marv--you really have to feel sorry for the schmuck. Well, at least that is until you see just how dopey this guy gets. You see, when he learns that Betty is using him, instead of getting angry, the sap wants to impress her--even though she obviously isn't worth it! Now despite how dumb his motivation is, I did like Marv's plan to win her back. When Marv accidentally learns that his boss is involved with buying and selling drugs, he also learns that there will be $1,000,000 in the company safe--and it's ripe for the picking. So, this teen(!) organizes a mini-gang and sets out to rip off the drug dealer. The rest of the film plays a lot like the merging of film noir AND a teenage romance! I loved how black the ending was--so violent and fatalistic...so gritty! It sure ended well and never bored me.

My favorite riff from High School Big Shots airing on the best show ever. While being aired on MST3K is a sure sign of being a clunker this film actually has a bit to offer and the story has been regurgitated countless times in bigger budget modern day action pictures, Dead Presidents and Revevoir Dogs (which is itself a shot by shot rip off of a Hong Kong action picture) to name a couple. Not to say H.S.B.S was any sort of originator but it's certainly watchable without the zingers flying from Mike and the Bots. This thing oozes cheese but it also maintains a nice grit. Poor Marv gets screwed out of a sure college scholarship after being duped by some bimbo, dad's a suicidal drunk, the big heist is an obvious debacle waiting to happen and when it does unravel people die. Like I said , High School Big Shot wasn't an originator but it has it's imitators and thats something you can't say for many MSTied movies.