High School Confidential!

This movie was awesome in a hilariously bad public service announcement sort of way. It is the 21 Jump Street of 1958. It spins a cautionary tale of a few "weedheads" at a high school in California who learn that smoking weed leads to heroin addiction, and a jail sentence of 5 years to life. We wanted to watch it, for one because Mr. Turner suggested it, but also as a counterpoint to some teenage B movies we will watch tomorrow or something. This was made by MGM, Jerry Lee Lewis, pre-cousin marrying creepiness, wrote an original song, and it featured John Drew Barrymore, Drew's father, and Mamie VanDoren.

Emily: This one was amazing. It was so preachy and the statistics were hilarious, "280 out of 1200 kids are addicted to marijuana.....or heroin."

Kamala: This movie certainly is of little cinematic importance, but it sure was funny. It obviously represents a huge effort on the part of MGM to use teen heartthrobs speaking in what I guess was contemporary slang to hammer home some message about drug use. MGM was really strapped for cash at the time and was trying to appeal to both parents and children with this movie.

Emily: Through some internet sleuthing, we discovered that this movie actually came out in June of 1958, the MONTH AFTER Jerry Lee Lewis was shamed publicly for marrying his 13 year old first cousin once removed. That must have been a big blow for MGM because I bet when they made the movie they thought they would have this big star who released an album especially for the movie in April would be good publicity. Ha Ha

Kamala: We will flesh this one out later when we watch this B-movie called "Lost, Lonely, and Vicious," an independent counterpart to High School Confidential!