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NTSC, Widescreen, Dolby, Closed-captioned, Black & White

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Michael Landon, Lewis Meltzer, Jan Sterling, Mamie Van Doren, Jerry Lee Lewis, Diane Jergens, Russ Tamblyn, John Drew Barrymore, Jackie Coogan, Jody Fair, Ray Anthony, Burt Douglas, Charles Chaplin Jr., Jack Arnold, Robert Blees

Contributor

Michael Landon, Lewis Meltzer, Jan Sterling, Mamie Van Doren, Jerry Lee Lewis, Diane Jergens, Russ Tamblyn, John Drew Barrymore, Jackie Coogan, Jody Fair, Ray Anthony, Burt Douglas, Charles Chaplin Jr., Jack Arnold, Robert Blees

Language

English, French

Runtime

1 hour and 25 minutes

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Description

HIGH SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL! - DVD Movie

Product information

Run time

‎1 hour and 25 minutes

Number of discs

‎1

Media Format

‎NTSC, Widescreen, Dolby, Closed-captioned, Black & White

Actors

‎Russ Tamblyn, Jan Sterling, John Drew Barrymore, Diane Jergens, Mamie Van Doren

Aspect Ratio

‎2.35:1

Studio

‎Republic Pictures

Release date

‎June 15, 2004

ASIN

‎B0002235LM

Customer Reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars 79Reviews

Additional Information

Best Sellers Rank:
#129,625 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

#6,814 in Mystery & Thrillers (Movies & TV)

#21,305 in Drama DVDs

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5

79 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Kindle Customer

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Love This Trashy '50s Flick Daddy-O! :)

Reviewed in the United States on April 3, 2013

**Spoilers Ahead**! I ordered the dvd and it came in record time. The film is obviously very old and the quality spotty in spots but not too bad. The sound is great. Jerry Lee Lewis pulling up singing "High School Hop" or whatever it's called in a... See more

**Spoilers Ahead**!

I ordered the dvd and it came in record time. The film is obviously very old and the quality spotty in spots but not too bad. The sound is great.

Jerry Lee Lewis pulling up singing "High School Hop" or whatever it's called in a flatbed in the prime of his career is fun. If you read the sign on the truck, Lewis seems to be hawking his music store's wares or something along those lines which is the reason he pulls up in a truck in front of the school.

This film is priceless. It's a hoot and I find it hard to believe the powers that be really took production of this 'anti-drug' film seriously-but according to stars Russ Tamblyn and Mamie Van Doren back in the day-they did! I'm a huge Russ Tamblyn fan I think he's dreamy :) and this was one of his films I had not seen-I knew it was supposed to be 'campy' as only 50's B-films could be but what a riot!!

Tamblyn has said in interviews that he didn't want to do this film but the studio threatened to suspend him if he didn't take the assignment. Nice way to treat the star of such quality films as "Seven Brides For Seven Brothers", "Peyton Place", "Tom Thumb", and a few years after this trashy film, "West Side Story" but back then MGM wanted to make money above all and they didn't care if they forced their stars to do craptacular movies as well as great ones to get there.

Gotta love the 'Hep' slang, and the surreal scenarios in this film though. In spite of it's 'camp' quality I really enjoyed it!! It's just so damn funny and unrealistic it's entertaining!

Tamblyn's apparently under-sexed 'Aunt' Gwen (Mamie Van Doren) is a curiousity to say the least. From interviews, neither Tamblyn nor Van Doren ever quite understood what 'Aunt' Gwen's purpose was in this film. She and her absentee husband seem to have been hired by the Narcs to act as undercover agent Tony/Mike's (played by Tamblyn) legal 'guardians'. 'Tony' is supposed to be an orphan living with his 'aunt' who's not really his aunt. She's 'being paid room and board' again presumably by the Narcs to pretend to be his aunt. However, Aunt Mamie over-steps her position to the point that she keeps hitting on the 'teenaged' Tony who is not really a teenager. 'I know you're not really a baby' 'Auntie' purrs to Tony at one point. ;) Somehow 'Tony' manages to resist his sexy aunt's advances over and over again. OT, but I can't help thinking that this scenario would have taken on a whole other tone if 'Tony' had been a female undercover agent with an 'Uncle' guardian putting the moves on her.

In the film the naive belief that marijuana causes major withdrawals almost on the level of hard narcotics, and that it could lead to heroin is amusing to a degree.

Going back to Aunt Mamie - as inappropriate as 'Auntie' behaves towards Tony it is interesting that this undercover cop behaves rather inappropriately (and for no necessary reason) towards his teacher AND his 'girlfriend' who is in fact a high school student. I assume she is of age, perhaps an 18 year old Senior but it is still strange that a police officer would be dating and necking with a high school student as part of his attempts to bust a drug ring. He also allows her to drag race with him (seatbelts apparently weren't in vogue in the '50s) a race which could have ended badly. Why would a cop take such a risk with a student in tow?

They sure did smoke alot in the '50s. Not just pot but cigarettes. Yikes. Anyway..

Then there is Drew Barrymore's daddy, the late John Drew Barrymore. His Christopher Columbus 'history' lesson is actually very funny! He was physically bigger than Tamblyn so one has to suspend belief (well for the whole film really) quite a bit when it seems that the slender though athletic Tamblyn (he was a gymnast) can intimidate him and his whole gang with a switchblade and become their 'President' without barely breaking a sweat.

And to add to the psychedelic feel of this film-honorable mention must go to the late Phillipa Fallon, the beat Poetess. If ever there was a wtf moment in film this was it. I LOVED it. It was just so-out there! I get that the beat generation was hep man but dayum daddy-o!

"High School Confidential" is one for the ages! To infinity! And the future IS a a drag man! But this film is so bad-it's good! :D

10 people found this helpful

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the masked reviewer

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Funnier than REEFER MADNESS!

Reviewed in the United States on July 29, 2007

Twenty years ago, "pothead" baby boomers flocked to midnight showings of the '30's cult movie Reefer Madness, and laughed till their sides hurt at the unintentionally riotous warnings issued therein about the dangers of becoming, well, a "pothead." It's hard to believe that... See more

Twenty years ago, "pothead" baby boomers flocked to midnight showings of the '30's cult movie Reefer Madness, and laughed till their sides hurt at the unintentionally riotous warnings issued therein about the dangers of becoming, well, a "pothead." It's hard to believe that there could be a better Bad Movie on the same subject, but the 1958 High School Confidential! is even funnier.

"I'm looking to graze on grass," Russ Tamblyn tells another student on his first day at a new school. She reminds him, "this is your seventh year in high school." That almost explains why Tamblyn looks too old for this role, but nothing could possibly explain the next scene: Wandering into homeroom, Tamblyn finds teacher Jan Sterling writing on the blackboard, "Derivation of slang words: chicken, doll, square, scram," prompting Tamblyn to let fly a wolf whistle, then leer at Sterling, "Why don't we cut out, go to your pad and live it up? You can call me Daddy-o." Instead, Sterling must attend a staff meeting where a Fed explains, "In the language the addicts use, marijuana is referred to as Mary Jane, pot, weed or tea," then warns, "it can happen here." It does, at a hep-cat coffeehouse where Tamblyn anxiously tried to score "some H, some coke and some goofballs" while a "doll" recites this poem: "We cough blood on this earth/Now there's a race for space/We can cough blood on the moon, soon/Tomorrow is dragsville, cats/Tomorrow is a king-sized drag."

At home, Tamblyn must fend off the advances of his amorous aunt, Mamie Van Doren, who vamps him by rolling around on his bed and takes a big, meaningful bite out of his apple. The movie goes loco when Sterling, concerned about Tamblyn, comes to call--an opportunity for Van Doren to strut her stuff and snarl, "I don't believe all that stuff the papers say about 'wild reefer parties' and 'fates worse than death in the bushes at night.' Don't tell me you never rode a hot rod, or had a late date in the second balcony!" Tamblyn, meanwhile, is off meeting the local drug lord, Jackie Coogan, who runs a jukebox empire (the evils of rock'n'roll and drug abuse being one and the same). Coogan sneers, of a high-school cutie writhing on his sofa, "I tried to tell that chick that no head ever becomes a lady." Tamblyn pleads, "I'm looking for junk!"--as if this movie were anything but.

Though there's lots more--Jerry Lee Lewis drives by, belting out a tune; the "bad" kids do drugs and (how shocking!) laze around a pool; Sterling helps teen Diane Jergens break the habit by, yes, snapping a joint in two (oh is that how it's done?)--it all ends happily, for, thankfully, Tamblyn's really an undercover FBI agent who busts Coogan. Best of all, at the film's close, a narrator tells us, "You have just seen an authentic disclosure of conditions which unfortunately exist in some of our high schools today.... The job of policemen will not be finished until this insidious menace to the schools of our country is exposed and destroyed." Go buy this movie, right now.

9 people found this helpful

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T.NAKAJIMA

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Old-Time "The Fast and the Furious"; Watch Drew's Father

Reviewed in the United States on January 3, 2002

"High School Confidential" is a kind of a movie your mothers (or grandmothers) with their dates were watching (or pretending to watch) at their local driving theater. There is no plot except that Russ Tamblyn got involved with drug in his high school, and the... See more

"High School Confidential" is a kind of a movie your mothers (or grandmothers) with their dates were watching (or pretending to watch) at their local driving theater. There is no plot except that Russ Tamblyn got involved with drug in his high school, and the picture goes on showing a series of car chase, students who brandish knives, and girls who love them. And some adults too who cannot understand their behaviors. But, never mind, it's nothing serious.
In short, the film was one of the major studios's way to cash in on the advent of recently born rock'n'roll age, and as if to prove it, it begins with nice Jerry Lee Lewis number "High School Confidential." His role? Of course, himself. And the cast, catching the eye of prospective audience quickly and cheaply, is the most attaractive part even now. There is Jackie Coogan (in the original "Addams Family" and Chaplin's "Kid") and talking of him, Charles Chaplin Jr. (!). There is Ray Anthony from the music industry, but most interesting thing is probably the appearance of John Drew Barrymore, real-life father of Drew Barrymore. His name might interest some fans who knew his daughter through "ET" or "Charlie's Angels."
There is a car chase scene (in which a car overturns in a very, very ridiculous way), Mamie Van Doren (who looks like much more famous MM), and ostentatious moralistic preaching about the harm of drug. But the formula itself survived and still we can find it in the hit movies like "The Fast and the Furious," which to some extent resembles "HSC." Nothing great, but still fun as a period piece.

17 people found this helpful

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Hunter

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Sometimes, You Just Can't Tell

Reviewed in the United States on September 28, 2011

It ain't easy buying some DVDs through Amazon. Amazon "Product Details" say this DVD is "1.33:1" "Full Screen". It IS NOT. Even on the DVD case it says it's "Full Screen Version" "Formatted from its original version to fit your screen" "Presented in the original 1.33:1... See more

It ain't easy buying some DVDs through Amazon. Amazon "Product Details" say this DVD is "1.33:1" "Full Screen". It IS NOT. Even on the DVD case it says it's "Full Screen Version" "Formatted from its original version to fit your screen" "Presented in the original 1.33:1 format in which the film was shot". The case even shows little pictures of the appearance to be expected on a "Standard TV" and on a "16:9 TV". MGM made the movie, Republic Home Video issued it on DVD, and Amazon sells it to you, and NONE of them can tell you the DVD movie displays in Widescreen (I measure 2.20:1, IMDB says the original movie was 2.35:1). UH, how could the original format have been 4:3 if the DVD movie copy appears in 2.20:1? Video MAGIC? When you buy and watch this DVD, you will AUTOMATICALLY be smarter than all the movie viewers and mathematicians at MGM, Republic, AND the "Product Details" people at Amazon when YOU know the actual aspect AND THEY DON'T. OH, hold your breath and see how long it takes Amazon to change their "Product Details" to represent this product accurately.

8 people found this helpful

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Victor Malyar

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I enjoyed this film

Reviewed in the United States on January 1, 2015

I enjoyed this film. The lead character is a juvenile offender who has problems. His name is Tony Baker and he is an orphan who lives with his aunt who has with him an incestuous relationship because her husband left her on a business trip and she is uncertain when he... See more

I enjoyed this film. The lead character is a juvenile offender who has problems. His name is Tony Baker and he is an orphan who lives with his aunt who has with him an incestuous relationship because her husband left her on a business trip and she is uncertain when he will return. The aunt is young and highly attractive and yet gets jealous if Tony dates other girls. Tony is a bad student who carries a switchblade and attempts to become the new leader of a gang at his school called the wheelers and dealers. He takes over the gang and steals the gang leader's girlfriend. He is later arrested for possession of marijuana and a look-alike plain clothes cop takes over from there to bust the wheelers and dealers and their supplier of heroin played by Jackie Coogen who is arrested and incarcerated in the end.

2 people found this helpful

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Mark S. Crawford

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Some things never change . . .

Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2005

I teach the history of pop music at the college level and I'm always looking for source material. It's hard to beat the mid to late 50s movies featuring teen angst and early rock and roll. It's interesting to me that we still have similar issues with drugs, home life,... See more

I teach the history of pop music at the college level and I'm always looking for source material. It's hard to beat the mid to late 50s movies featuring teen angst and early rock and roll. It's interesting to me that we still have similar issues with drugs, home life, teenage behavior, etc. When I talk about the 50s in my class, I often show clips from these types of movies. This movie is not so much about the music (like "Don't Knock the Rock," or "Rock Around the Clock") but more of a period piece similar to "Blackboard Jungle." I gave it a 5 because it takes me back to that time better than most movies made in the 50s.

7 people found this helpful

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John W. Butler, Jr.

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An absolute blast of a movie.

Reviewed in the United States on February 9, 2021

Camp, suspenseful, ridiculous, hilarious. This movie is all over the place! In a good way! One of my favorites ever. You know when the opening scene is Jerry Lee Lewis performing on a truck riding through campus that you are in for something. Not to be missed.

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just simple one

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One Star

Reviewed in the United States on September 23, 2017

Did not like

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NightoftheLivingDollheads

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"High" School Confidential

Reviewed in Canada on April 4, 2020

This movie is the quintessential teen movie about teens in the 1950s. High School Confidential was a lot better than I expected.i love this movie. The high school is full of drugs and rock n roll especially with "marijuana cigarettes." The teachers led by the Principal, how...See more

This movie is the quintessential teen movie about teens in the 1950s. High School Confidential was a lot better than I expected.i love this movie. The high school is full of drugs and rock n roll especially with "marijuana cigarettes." The teachers led by the Principal, how students are "addicted to marijuana." Then along comes Heroin. This movie reminds me of Reefer Madness. All in all, this movie was great! Not a Russ Tamblin fan but I was loving some Mamie Van Doreen. It was good 10 minutes before I knew that the hot, gorgeous, painfully good looking guy who was "doing stand up" on the teacher's desk was John freakin Drew Barrymore! This was my first time ever seeing him. SPLOOSH!!! I expected him to have the Barrymore chin, but he didn't look like a Barrymore. So sexy! What? Oh the movie. I LOVED it! Jerry Lee Lewis' gave me goosebumps! I'm watching it over and over again. I There was lot of paranoia into 50s with McCarthy, fear, and the concern of Juvenile Delinquency. The 1950s were a very repressed time. The lingo is outta sight! This film is primo, Daddio! Did I mention John Drew Barrymore is in it?

This movie is the quintessential teen movie about teens in the 1950s. High School Confidential was a lot better than I expected.i love this movie. The high school is full of drugs and rock n roll especially with "marijuana cigarettes." The teachers led by the Principal, how students are "addicted to marijuana." Then along comes Heroin. This movie reminds me of Reefer Madness. All in all, this movie was great! Not a Russ Tamblin fan but I was loving some Mamie Van Doreen. It was good 10 minutes before I knew that the hot, gorgeous, painfully good looking guy who was "doing stand up" on the teacher's desk was John freakin Drew Barrymore! This was my first time ever seeing him. SPLOOSH!!! I expected him to have the Barrymore chin, but he didn't look like a Barrymore. So sexy!

What? Oh the movie. I LOVED it! Jerry Lee Lewis' gave me goosebumps! I'm watching it over and over again. I
There was lot of paranoia into 50s with McCarthy, fear, and the concern of Juvenile Delinquency. The 1950s were a very repressed time. The lingo is outta sight! This film is primo, Daddio!

Did I mention John Drew Barrymore is in it?

FRANPIA

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DVD en Zone 1 US

Reviewed in France on March 3, 2020

Après modification de la zone sur lecteur DVD produit conforme

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Alan Argent

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High School Confidentially Not Bad!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 13, 2010

I hadn't seen this 1958 made film since 1960 when, as a 17 year-old RAF rookie, I watched it at a flea-pit in Swindon just to see Jerry Lee Lewis. I had forgotten the plot, but watched the film today and was surprisingly impressed. Not just with Jerry Lee Lewis either. As...See more

I hadn't seen this 1958 made film since 1960 when, as a 17 year-old RAF rookie, I watched it at a flea-pit in Swindon just to see Jerry Lee Lewis. I had forgotten the plot, but watched the film today and was surprisingly impressed. Not just with Jerry Lee Lewis either. As its name implies, the movie is set in an American (all white I noticed) High School, and stars Russ Tamblyn as a new, brash, rich, bad-news, slang-ridden kid on the block, out to impress the girls and annoy the authorities. Mamie Van Doren plays his sexy, unbelievable "auntie" with whom he resides. The main thrust of the movie was a surprisingly entertaining and believable plot about the very real dangers of drugs, mainly marijuana and cocaine, which were obviously becoming serious problems in American schools at the time, and the efforts of the authorities to catch and punish those responsible for their distribution. Our (UK) problem with such matters followed a few years later I remember. My 40-ish aged daughters and 15-ish aged granddaughters thought the film entertaining and with a drugs message very relevant in the UK today. Interesting footnote: The film also features a young Michael Landon (Bonanza, Little House On The Prairie and Highway To Heaven) in a minor supporting role as a high school student. Alan Argent, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England.

I hadn't seen this 1958 made film since 1960 when, as a 17 year-old RAF rookie, I watched it at a flea-pit in Swindon just to see Jerry Lee Lewis. I had forgotten the plot, but watched the film today and was surprisingly impressed. Not just with Jerry Lee Lewis either.

As its name implies, the movie is set in an American (all white I noticed) High School, and stars Russ Tamblyn as a new, brash, rich, bad-news, slang-ridden kid on the block, out to impress the girls and annoy the authorities. Mamie Van Doren plays his sexy, unbelievable "auntie" with whom he resides.

The main thrust of the movie was a surprisingly entertaining and believable plot about the very real dangers of drugs, mainly marijuana and cocaine, which were obviously becoming serious problems in American schools at the time, and the efforts of the authorities to catch and punish those responsible for their distribution. Our (UK) problem with such matters followed a few years later I remember.
My 40-ish aged daughters and 15-ish aged granddaughters thought the film entertaining and with a drugs message very relevant in the UK today.

Interesting footnote: The film also features a young Michael Landon (Bonanza, Little House On The Prairie and Highway To Heaven) in a minor supporting role as a high school student.

Alan Argent, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England.

3 people found this helpful

noonefamous

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Possibly the greatest B movie ever made

Reviewed in Canada on April 18, 2014

I love this film. The film is presented in non-anamorphic widescreen 2.35:1 (it says full screen on the case but this is wrong), black & white, 85 mins and the audio is standard English Dolby Digital Mono. The only extra, if you want to call it that, is a scene index (23...See more

I love this film. The film is presented in non-anamorphic widescreen 2.35:1 (it says full screen on the case but this is wrong), black & white, 85 mins and the audio is standard English Dolby Digital Mono. The only extra, if you want to call it that, is a scene index (23 stops). Worth the purchase but I really wish they would come out with a special edition of this film or even a Mamie Van Doren box set someday.

Antoine Elias Raffoul

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The Jerry Lee Lewis show...almost

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 15, 2010

I saw this film when it first came out. I wanted to watch it again just to see Jerry Lee Lewis even though he performed only one song in it. Still amazing to see him as he was!

4 people found this helpful

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High School Confidential! (aka Young Hellions)

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