High School Big Shot (1959)

Marv (Tom Pittman) is a bright and nice young man – but he needs money . . .

His widowed and unemployed dad (Malcolm Atterbury) is so broke that he makes Marv give up half of his last $6 so they can both go on $3 dates; he’s just lost his scholarship after getting caught writing a term paper for Betty Alexander (Virginia Aldridge), the prettiest – in fact, only – girl in his class; and vixen Betty has told him he doesn’t stand a chance with her unless he can give her what she wants most: jewellery, furs and cash.

Meanwhile, Marv has a part-time job as a shipping clerk and has overheard his boss, Mr Mathews (Byron Foulger) talking about a million-dollar heroin deal that is about to go down. And so Marv plans to heist the million in syndicate cash from Mathews’ safe, accompanied by professional criminals Harry March (Stanley Adams) and Samuel Tallman (Louis Quinn).

It’s a debacle (as expected) and when things go pear-shaped, people begin to die and it all ends in a bloody mess.

It’s a bad film. How bad? It was aired as an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000. As usual, the actors are much too old to play high school students – especially Howard Veit who plays meathead jock Vince Rumbo. He looks about thirty.

Sadly, the film was released after 26-year-old actor Tom Pittman was killed on 31 October 1958 (Halloween) when he accidentally ran his Porsche Spyder off the road and into a deep ravine in the Hollywood Hills. The wreckage – and his body – was not discovered for 10 days.

Marvin ‘Marv’ Grant
Tom Pittman
Betty Alexander
Virginia Aldridge
Vince Rumbo
Howard Veit
Mr Grant
Malcolm Atterbury
Harry March
Stanley Adams
Samuel Tallman
Louis Quinn
Mr Carter
Peter Leeds
Larry Walker
John Barrick
Burt Rogers
Jimmy Murphy
Mr Mathews
Byron Foulger
Johnson
Bobby Hall

Director
Joel Rapp

Video