High School Big Shot

1959 CrimeDrama 69 minutes Directed by Joel Rapp

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About High School Big Shot

Marv Grant, a high-school student with an alcoholic father, starts going out with Betty Alexander. She gets him to write her English term paper. Mr. Carter catches the cheat, fails Betty, and pulls the recommendation from Marv's scholarship application. Betty drops him and goes back to Vince. At his dock job Marv hears his boss planning to hold a million dollars in heroin money in the office safe. He recruits safecracker Harry March and Harry's brother-in-law Sam Tallman. He tells Betty about the job to get her to marry him. She agrees in front of him and tells Vince to take the cash. The three steal the money. Vince's gang hits them on the way out, Vince shoots Sam, then shoots Betty when she arrives, and the dealers shoot Vince. The cash spills off the dock into the water. Police kill one dealer and arrest the rest, Marv with them.

Cast & crew

More about High School Big Shot

Joel Rapp wrote and directed. Stanley Bickman produced, and Roger Corman was executive producer. Gerald Fried wrote the music. It was shot in 1958 under the title Blood Money and released by Filmgroup on June 21, 1959, on a double bill with T-Bird Gang. That pairing was Filmgroup's first release.

Themes

  • A stolen term paper
  • A scholarship pulled
  • A dock safe and a double-cross
  • Marv Grant
  • term paper
  • heroin money
  • safe
  • docks
  • Blood Money

Making

Corman's Filmgroup opened with two cheap crime pictures on one bill. This one had already been shot as Blood Money. The title on the marquee was the new one.

Music

Gerald Fried composed the score.

Preservation

The film is in the public domain. A copy is on the Internet Archive, and the unriffed feature is an extra on the 2017 Shout! Factory disc of Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode 618.

Notes

  • Tom Pittman plays Marv. It was his last film. He died in October 1958, and the picture opened the following June.
  • Malcolm Atterbury plays the father. Virginia Aldridge plays Betty. Peter Leeds plays Mr. Carter. Howard Veit plays Vince.
  • Stanley Adams plays Harry March. Louis Quinn plays Sam Tallman.
  • Mystery Science Theater 3000 used it as experiment 618, with the 1954 short Out of This World.
  • Shout! Factory's DVD of that episode, issued March 28, 2017, includes the film without the riffing.

Scenes

  • Mr. Carter works out that Betty did not write the paper and withdraws Marv's recommendation.
  • Vince shoots Sam during the grab, then shoots Betty, and the dealers shoot Vince.
  • The cash spills off the dock into the water as the police arrive.

Also available

  • Internet Archive (HighSchoolBigShot)
  • Wikimedia Commons (High School Big Shot.ogv)
  • Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume 6 (Shout! Factory DVD, March 28, 2017), episode 618, with the unriffed film