Mary Jane, weed, tea, ganja, herb, stick and so on. Every generation (which should tell us something) has its own code words for its recreational drugs. But wait a minute. Drugs, especially marijuana, are bad for you, right? Why? Marijuana is the first step on the slippery slope down the road to serious drug addiction- heroin, opium, crack and so on. And then on to a life of crime and jail. Is this a story from today's headlines? Well, I suppose it could be but it is not. This is the premise behind the 1958 classic B teenage movie "High School Confidential".

Now frankly, this year I have been on a Jerry Lee Lewis kick trying to establish who was the "king of rock and roll" during the 1950's so I picked up this little movie to see if it could aid my Jerry Lee bias. While the lead-in scene of Jerry Lee on a truck doing "High School Confidential" in front of some California high school students is amazing this film did not help in that effort. What is the case, however, is how even back then when drugs were a fringe phenomena mainly indulged in by the "beats" like Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac and their crowd and other "anti-social" types the monitors of American teenage mores in the film industry had to weigh in to condemn this practice out of hand. Nothing new there and the police authorities (the good guys, right?) then were just about as successful (in reality, not in the film) as they have been today. That is to say that they have sought to fill the jails as their solution to the problem. Mainly with blacks and Latinos. But enough of that, for now.

This turns out to be a very campy movie complete with new boy Russ Tambyn (a very old teenager, by the way) in town (as an undercover vice cop) trying to become "king of the hill" in the teenage drug market. We have a glance at teen life in the 1950's as seen by Hollywood with their take on "beat" slang (including a very nicely done be-bop poetic recitation by a young woman at a teenage nightclub), high school dances, hot rods on Saturday night(complete with a Rebel Without A Cause racing scene), grabbing girls (right from under the noses of other guys no less), 'dissing' teachers and headmasters and doing a little weed. (You know to liven up the party). All in the service of one thing- don't. The only thing not done here is an explicit tie-in with drugs and rock and roll although with Jerry Lee present that might have been a little hard to do. Since this is the 50th anniversary of the release of the film I will finish with one conclusion from viewing the film and the facts of life since then- decriminalize drug use-now.

What campy fun. It tried to have a serious message (and I guess for the time it came out it did), but it turned out to be just great. The scene where the student gets up and (raps?) it the best part of the movie. "You can spit blood on the moon, soon" is all you need to know. Uncle Fester was great as the mysterious Mister 'A'. Added feature was Mamie Van Doren parading around in tight sweaters and showing her stuff. She was a riot and beautiful!

Twenty years ago, "pothead" baby boomers flocked to midnight showings of the '30's cult movie Reefer Madness, and laughed till their sides hurt at the unintentionally riotous warnings issued therein about the dangers of becoming, well, a "pothead." It's hard to believe that there could be a better Bad Movie on the same subject, but the 1958 High School Confidential! is even funnier.

"I'm looking to graze on grass," Russ Tamblyn tells another student on his first day at a new school. She reminds him, "this is your seventh year in high school." That almost explains why Tamblyn looks too old for this role, but nothing could possibly explain the next scene: Wandering into homeroom, Tamblyn finds teacher Jan Sterling writing on the blackboard, "Derivation of slang words: chicken, doll, square, scram," prompting Tamblyn to let fly a wolf whistle, then leer at Sterling, "Why don't we cut out, go to your pad and live it up? You can call me Daddy-o." Instead, Sterling must attend a staff meeting where a Fed explains, "In the language the addicts use, marijuana is referred to as Mary Jane, pot, weed or tea," then warns, "it can happen here." It does, at a hep-cat coffeehouse where Tamblyn anxiously tried to score "some H, some coke and some goofballs" while a "doll" recites this poem: "We cough blood on this earth/Now there's a race for space/We can cough blood on the moon, soon/Tomorrow is dragsville, cats/Tomorrow is a king-sized drag."

At home, Tamblyn must fend off the advances of his amorous aunt, Mamie Van Doren, who vamps him by rolling around on his bed and takes a big, meaningful bite out of his apple. The movie goes loco when Sterling, concerned about Tamblyn, comes to call--an opportunity for Van Doren to strut her stuff and snarl, "I don't believe all that stuff the papers say about 'wild reefer parties' and 'fates worse than death in the bushes at night.' Don't tell me you never rode a hot rod, or had a late date in the second balcony!" Tamblyn, meanwhile, is off meeting the local drug lord, Jackie Coogan, who runs a jukebox empire (the evils of rock'n'roll and drug abuse being one and the same). Coogan sneers, of a high-school cutie writhing on his sofa, "I tried to tell that chick that no head ever becomes a lady." Tamblyn pleads, "I'm looking for junk!"--as if this movie were anything but.

Though there's lots more--Jerry Lee Lewis drives by, belting out a tune; the "bad" kids do drugs and (how shocking!) laze around a pool; Sterling helps teen Diane Jergens break the habit by, yes, snapping a joint in two (oh is that how it's done?)--it all ends happily, for, thankfully, Tamblyn's really an undercover FBI agent who busts Coogan. Best of all, at the film's close, a narrator tells us, "You have just seen an authentic disclosure of conditions which unfortunately exist in some of our high schools today.... The job of policemen will not be finished until this insidious menace to the schools of our country is exposed and destroyed." Go buy this movie, right now.

High School Confidential has misleading advertisements. When I saw the film, I thought it was going to be a semi-rock and roll film co-starring Jerry Lee Lewis (his name is actually in the credits). However, he only comes out during the opening credits singing one song.

The story is actually more in line with the 1950s juvenile delinquent films than the rock and roll films. I'm not saying that this is a bad thing because the film actually has a better plot than most rock and roll films. It just appears to be advertised as a rock and roll film.

That said, the film has a great storyline, but is overshadowed by beatnik talk and mentality (are beatniks really tough while reciting poetry?). It's great nonetheless.

This is a very good movie. In fact, it is extremely well done all around. The acting was very effective and convincing. Russ Tamblyn is excellent. I particularly liked the cinematography. Also, the script worked on many levels making it appealing to a wide audience. I found this film to be both entertaining and thought provoking.