Roddy McDowall stars as Alan Musgrave, a teenage outcast who becomes protector and friend of ambitious high school cheerleader Barbara Ann Greene (Tuesday Weld) in this incredibly black comedy set against the backdrop of a Los Angeles High School.
Barbara is driven to marriage, movie stardom, and (when it suits her mood) murder, performed by Alan.
Lola Albright is Weld’s alcoholic cocktail-waitress mother, Marie, Harvey Korman the puffed-up high school principal, Weldon Emmett, and Ruth Gordon the poisonously sarcastic mother-in-law addicted to yoghurt and Stingers.
This satire of Southern California sends up progressive education, greed and the idle rich with belly-laughs galore, and so many bizarre touches one wonders how director George Axelrod ever convinced a major studio to let him get away with this much.
It also has one of the grooviest 60s soundtracks ever, featuring an obscure group called The Wild Ones.
Alan Musgrave
Roddy McDowall
Barbara Ann Greene
Tuesday Weld
Marie Greene
Lola Albright
Bob Barnard
Martin West
Mrs Barnard
Ruth Gordon
Weldon Emmett
Harvey Korman
Miss Schwartz
Sarah Marshall
Sally Grace
Lynn Carey
Howard Greene
Max Showalter
Phil Neuhauser
Donald Murphy
Butch Neuhauser
Judith Loomis
Dr Milton Lippman
Joseph Mell
Honest Joe
Dan Frazer
Inez
Martine Bartlett
Kitten
Jo Collins
Director
George Axelrod