Slam-bang juvenile delinquent entertainment with a screenplay packed tight with every hilarious sliver of 50s teen lingo you can imagine. Russ Tamblyn is the new kid in school and he’s determined to find trouble. There’s something fishy about him, though. I’ll let you figure out what, even though every OTHER review of this film gives it away.
You get it all here: A rock ‘n’ roll theme song by Jerry Lee Lewis, junkies, knives, a drag race, a wild climactic fight, funny drug warnings (marijuana leads straight to heroin, you know), and a great beat poetry scene that’s played for laughs. When I saw two torpedoes show up on screen, I thought this had suddenly turned into a WAR movie, but no, that was just Mamie Van Doren in a tight sweater.
Directed by Jack Arnold, one of the most rock-solid directors of the 50s. The strange cast includes John Barrymore Jr. (going as John Drew Barrymore), Charles Chaplin Jr., and William Wellman Jr. Maybe Manny Robinson (aka Edward G. Robinson Jr.) was still locked up at the honor farm at the time and couldn’t make it.