"If you're trying to create an impression, I'm unimpressed."

Titled after the song by Jerry Lee Lewis and featuring a cameo of him singing the song, 1958's High School Confidential! is a campy teen drug exploitation film where any good intentions are completely skewed by the film itself. The film is pretty horrible, using teen slang that was dated even when the movie came out, naivete about drug use, bad beat poetry, and a camptastic morality play only the Fifties could produce.

Not even the big names of the cast could save this movie. A drug epidemic has hit Santa Bellow High just as troublemaker transfer student Tony Baker (Russ Tamblyn) after being kicked out of his last school. English teacher Arlene Williams (Jan Sterling) hopes to be the positive influence that will calm Baker’s wild ways. Tony becomes a member of local the local teenage drug ring, known as the Wheeler-Dealers, making friends such as J.I. Coleridge (John Drew Barrymore) and marijuana addict – yes addict – Joan Staples (Diane Jergens) who he ends up stealing from J.I. Baker lives with his nymphomaniac aunt (Mamie Van Doren) who wants him badly. Tony gradually works his way up to the top of the drug supply chain, but his true intentions aren’t revealed until the supposed to be climactic end of the film. Michael Landon and Charlie Chaplin, Jr. also have roles in this film.

The idiocy and naivete that went in to making this film is entirely apparent. Drugs and drug dealers are the ultimate villains, worse than any murderer or rapist, while as the DEA agents are the ultimate heroes. Parents are completely stupid when it comes to drugs and the message that even good kids can get into drugs misses its mark. The overall message though is that if "you flake around with the weed and you're gonna end up using the harder stuff". The "teenagers" are in their mid-twenties at the earliest and the plot is not only unrealistic but completely implausible.

For more on this film, if you really want to know more, I have two sites for you to check out. The first is a series of reviews and opinions other viewers have about the film which you can find here, courtesy of filmfanatic.org. Also, the blog Desukomoviespot has further exploration and does an amazing job of poking fun at the film here, for those of you who want to check it out. As it is, High School Confidential probably should have remained that way.