Ceticultsot Beautiful, moving film.

ThrillMessage There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Cheryl A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

MartinHafer This is an amazing 1950s movie because it is both highly entertaining and really cheesy fun--making it a sure cult classic. Unlike some anti-drug teenager cult films like REEFER MADNESS, this one actually has decent production values and performances--though I'll also admit there is more than enough cheese to please the "bad film fans" out there.Russ Tamblyn plays the lead. He enters a new high school like a typhoon--walking in like he owns the place and full of hep-cat 50s lingo. At the time, audiences must have been really shocked by his thuggish ways, though today his antics just look pretty silly and way, way over the top. Later in the film, however, you discover that his "new thug on the block" routine is just an act, as he's really working with the cops to get to the bottom of a drug ring selling to rich kids at a local high school.The film's pluses are it's hip lingo and beatnik ways. It's hip style is highly reminiscent of films such as BUCKET OF BLOOD and it is really fun to watch the "wild and untamed youth running wild" (they are about the tamest "untamed youth" I've seen since WILD ONE). Also, the plot isn't bad--making this like a hipster version of Film Noir. One of the negatives were the occasionally over the top performances--especially Mamie Van Doren as she plays a cat in heat who is desperate for action. She was perhaps the horniest lady on celluloid in the 1950s! Again, though, this was cheesy but also rather fun to watch as she acted like a sex addict going through withdrawal. However, the biggest problem with the film by far is that most of the "teenagers" in this film were actually too old even to play college students! Of the main cast, the youngest was Michael Landon who was 22 and yet they have them all playing high schoolers! It's laughable but again because it's all so funny and entertaining, I think it really adds to the film's kooky charm.So the final verdict is that this is a highly watchable and pretty well made camp classic. Is it art? Of course not--but that's what makes it all work somehow.

crossbow0106 You have to love watching a film like this now, its like opening a time capsule. Russ Tamblyn plays Tony Baker, a hood just transferred to this particular high school. The film is almost a cautionary tale about illegal drug use, but it also includes a drag race and a little bit about sexual attraction. Watching it now is also fun because of the people in it: Mr. Tamblyn, Michael Landon, Charlie Chaplin, JR (yes, the tramp's son!), Jackie Coogan (interesting that Chaplin's son and "The Kid" are in the same film), Jerry Lee Lewis (performing the title song) and the attractive Jan Sterling, who plays Miss Williams. Most of the dialogue is slang for those times, which is a lot of fun now. The film is less than 90 minutes long and it rolls along pretty well. Its just great to watch now. Really, enjoy it, its fun.

preppy-3 Silly exploitation movie. It's about tough kid Tony (Russ Tamblyn) going to live with his nymphomaniac aunt (Mamie Van Doren) and attending a new school. He meets the head kid J.I. (John Drew Barrymore), gets involved with his girlfriend Joan (Diane Jergens) and gets involved with selling drugs. But Tony may not be who he seems to be.At times funny but mostly boring teen flick. This throws reality out the window right at the beginning with Jerry Lee Lewis on the back of a truck (with a band no less) "singing" a tune and all the "high school" kids (they're easily all in their 20s) start dancing! The 50s slang is way out of date and makes most of the "teenagers" sound like a bunch of idiots. The story is predictable and the attempt to sell this as a serious drug movie are just laughable. And seriously--Russ Tamblyn as a tough kid?????? He's terrible but he's totally miscast and the dialogue does him no favors. Barrymore adopts a hysterically stupid Southern accent and Van Doren shows off her "assets" by wearing VERY tight shirts! Sterling and Jergens try to act but nobody could make this work. I suppose this might be fun for some people but I was mostly bored. Might be worth catching to see some of the actors so young and Michael Landon in a small role but the dull story, bad acting and real jaw-dropping vamping by Van Doren make this a chore to sit through. I give it a 4.

stephenwillyamz-1 This film starts out with Jerry Lee Lewis and his combo, on the back of a flatbed truck, singing and playing the title song while slowly rolling by the local high school (which looks nothing like a high school). Why are they playing there? Who knows? This scene was shot around the time IL' Jerry Lee married his 14-year-old cousin and was banned from American Bandstand. "Dick Clark done me wrong!" (Also, Allen 'Mr. Rock 'n Roll' Freed was busted for payola during this period; Buddy Holly, Ritchie Vallens & Duh Big Bopper were almost ready to take that fateful flight out of Iowa.) The song 'High School Confidential' suffered from poor airplay and drifted into obscurity—but hey, we got Fabian, Frankie Avalon and the other Italian-American rockers out of the shake-up.A new kid (who happens to be 24-years-old) Russ 'Westside Story' Tamblyn cruses by the musical flatbed, without looking up and starts his first day at Nameless High. He almost gets into a rumble with Drew Barrymore's dad, the President of the 'Wheelers & Dealers' who's also a small potatoes reefer dealer (one joint for a buck)—Jackie 'Uncle Fester' Coogan is Mister Big. Goody Two-Shoes Michael 'I Was A Teenaged Werewolf' Landon ties to get Russ to stop acting like a juvenile delinquent and join the football team. No dice… There's a pointless and outlandish 'Wheelers & Dealers' sponsored drag race, whose route seems to consist of pointless loops around a few movie studio sound stages. For reasons unknown 26-year-old John Drew Barrymore's (he died last year) hopped-up 21-year-old girlfriend, Joan is riding with and hanging all over Russ during the big race. This bizarre romantic betrayal doesn't seem to bother any of the drag city racing fans or the Wheelers & Dealers. A big plastic bag of marijuana, hidden behind Russ's wobbling hubcap, falls out just as the fuzz arrive ending the race. Bummer! Oh, platinum blonde Mamie 'Untamed Youth' Van Doren plays Russ's sex-starved/nymphomaniac aunt—she's an absolutely useless character that has nothing to do with the plot. She was big-busted in her day and a well known cinematic sexpot, but today she's viewed as small bleached-blonde potatoes compared to the saline-implant hoochy mamas of the 21st century.Anyway, Russ is actually an undercover nark who eventually busts the maryjane/horse dope syndicate preying on those poor, innocent & overaged Eisenhower Era high school students. Those addicted teeners are constantly skipping their homework, preferring to hang out at a strangely serene beatnik nightclub while listening to bleak beat poetry and "grazing in the grass." Uncle Fester plays a honky-tonk piano during these poetry sessions.Homeroom teacher, Jan Sterling (who also died last year) convinces John Drew Barrymore's marijuana addicted blonde girlfriend Joan, played by Diane Jergens, to break her reefer in half and drop it on the floor. Maybe now Joan can finally graduate from Nameless High and go on the city college.