***SPOILERS*** Movie about America's youth being corrupted by drug pushers who use drug addicted high school students to push their marijuana and heroin on their fellow students. Of course he local police and FBI need evidence that these horrendous crimes are going on in the high schools of our nation and use undercover agents to get the goods, and drugs, to put these fiendish drug dealers away for good. The now new kid in high school Tony Baker, Russ Tamblyn, gets into the act by him trying to take over the drug operation in Santa Bella High.***SPOILERS*** You see right away that the cocky and almost 30 year old Tony is really a teenage looking undercover agent Mike Wilson who works for the FBI who knowledge of the now ,1950's, hip and drug slang has him easily infiltrate the school's student drug operation headed by hipster student J.L Coleridge, John Drew Barrymore. It's J.L's pot addicted girlfriend Joan Staples, Diane Jergens, whom Tony makes a play for in him being able to get close to the action as well as J.L.It's obvious as soon as you see him that Tony is not exactly whom he wants us to think that he is. A spoiled brat who wants us to think that he's in charge of things in and out of the classroom. It's Tony's history teacher Miss. Williams, Jan Sterling, who tries to straighten him out who almost ends up getting killed in the end by the drug dealers hat Tony is working, undercover that is, with. There's also Tony's sexy undercover aunt, in who's house he shares with, Gwen Delaine, Mamie Van Doren. You never can figure out just what's Miss. Van Doren is doing in the movie except providing eye candy to us guys watching her Va Va Voom figure and vital statistics, 37-24-35, that she's more then willing to show off in the ultra tights clothes that she wears.It's after Tony gets to meet the real Mr.Big in the high school drug trade piano playing night cub owner Mr. A, Jackie Coogan, that he slips up in letting the cat out of the bag by Joan finding out, and telling J.L while she's stoned out of her skull, that she overheard a conversation between Tony and Mr.A that Tony secretly recorded that can send Mr.A away for life! ***SPOILERS*** It's now up to Tony's friends in the police FBI and student body headed by Steve Bently,Michael Landon, to come to his rescue before Mr. A, machete in hand, and his goon squad headed by Quinn, Charlie Chaplin Jr, finish him off! The free for all ending in Mr.A's night club has the lid blown off in Mr. A's drug dealing operation in Santa Bella High that he's been running. It's then that the parents of the students going to Santa Bella High realize just how naive they were in them thinking that it, drug dealing, can't happen here in suburban middle America. Which in fact has been going on for the last four or five years right under their noses!P.S Look for Rock & Roll singer and piano player Jerry Lee Lewis banging away at his keyboard with his locks of blond hair swirling almost off his head playing the movies theme song,on the back of a flatbed truck, "Boppin at the High School Hop".

Also appearances by Micheal Landon, Charles Chaplin, Jr. and Jackie Cooper.This film begins up with Jerry Lee Lewis and band pounding away in a High School parking lot as Tamblyn drives up in the coolest car ever seen in any of these Teenage Exploitation films.Just like 1955's "Blackboard Jungle", this film depended on exploiting the music and slang of the 50's - Which it did in not so much an over-the-top fashion as films like the '50's rock and roll films like Alan Freed's "Rock Around the Clock", "Don't Rock Around the Clock", or even the anti-marijuana film "Reefer Madness".Like "Reefer Madness", this film tries to discourage teenagers from smoking marijuana, chiefly by trying to prove that smoking marijuana leads directly to using hard drugs, which may, or may not be true- It's an angle law enforcers used to use back in the 30's that "Pot smoking always leads to using hard drugs" - An angle that we now believe as incorrect, in relation to the present day psychiatric belief that such cravings are inherited.However, the depictions of hard drug users, and use! - in this film are as close to reality as I have ever seen, especially in a film made in the 50's.Tamblyn as JD almost does not work, his performance just slides under the door into believability- However, the reason for this reveals itself as the film develops.The female lead Diane Jergens as "Joan Staples" - When Tamblyn's character calls her "Kitten" she looks rather Kittenish. Also, Mamie Van Doren as Tamblyn's aunt "Gwen Dulaine" is a standout. '50s actress Jan Sterling is Tamblyn's home-room teacher and is a good solid character role for her.One highlight of this film is by John Drew Barrymore, who as "J. I.", the ringleader of the "Wheeler-Dealers", gives us a comedic version of Columbus asking Queen Isabella for money - This delivered as a stand-up comedy routine "in front of the High School class" - And he delivers this using all 50's type slang.Overall, the slang use in this film is the best and most realistic of all the 50's rock and roll movies and Jack Arnold, "Creature from the Black Lagoon" and other Sci Fi flicks from the 50's as well as uncredited re-shoots in "This Island Earth" takes a step away from the science fiction genre to direct this classic Teenage Rock and roll/Film-Noire film.

Mamie Van Doren as somebody's aunt could put a whole new slant on "visiting the relatives". Here her twin gunboats are aimed at no one in particular, and I expect she was added at the last minute to further hype this exploitation exercise. But then this was cutting edge material for 1958 teens-- sassing the teacher, hotrod chickie runs, and maybe a pull on a joint if you could find one. Yeah, this is reefer-madness for the pre-Vietnam Pepsi generation. Never mind that the movie is one-third Blackboard Jungle, one-third Rebel Without a Cause, and the rest sheer Hollywood hokum. Producer Zugsmith may not have known Leonardo Da Vinci from Leonardo Da Caprio, but he knew how to crowd teens into drive-ins. Then too, lead actor Tamblyn may look more like a cheer-leader than a hoody delinquent, but at least he's not bored with the part. Fast-buck artists like Zugsmith knew how to market these exploitation quickies as timely warnings to parents and teens. But kids weren't fooled. They knew they could see forbidden topics like teens kissing on a bed under the uplifting guise of civic betterment. No, this drive-in special may never have made it into uptown movie houses, but as an artifact of its time, it's more fun than any 10 of that year's dreary A-productions.

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.