High School Hellcats (1958)

It's another Sunday in the books which can only mean one thing and that it is another Sunday At The Classics. This is the time when adventure into some of the older films from Hollywood as check out films that were made before 1969 which was considered to be the end of classic Hollywood. I was cruising through Amazon Prime looking for a film when I came across today's title High School Hellcats which was directed by Edward Bernds (The Bowery Boys Meet the Monsters) and was released in 1958. The film stars Yvonne Lime (I Was A Teenage Werewolf) as Joyce Martin, a good girl who has just moved into town with her family who just happens to fall in with the bad crowd. You see, she joins a group called the Hellcats which is sort of a sorority at the school to try and feel accepted, but only her new boyfriend and teacher know how dangerous that move can be. The film also stars Brett Halsey (Return Of The Fly) as Mike Landers, Jana Lund (Married Too Young) as Connie Harris, Susanne Sidney (General Electric Theater) as Dolly Crane, Rhoda Williams (Space Master X-7) as Ms. Davis, Robert Anderson (My Friend Flicka) as Police Lt. Manners, Viola Harris (Sex And The City 2) as Linda Martin, and Don Shelton (The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show) as Roger Martin.

This was the era of the teen angst films where they tried to show you how bad the youth of America could be and believe me the poster you see above is more seductive than the whole entire film itself. This is an example of how the choices you make can impact your future and if you choose to run with the bad crowd then expect the judgement you'll receive from others. Joyce is a good kid that decides to make the wrong choice by becoming a Hellcat, but she was the new kid in town who obviously just wants to be accepted at school. The acting for the most part was pretty good especially from Lime, Halsey, Harris, Lund, and Sidney, but there were a couple of instances like at the party where the director must of been like, "Ok, you've been drinking so just act like you think you would if you drank a lot." Only to have some of the results be OK while others were a little cringe, but it's the 1950's. Other than that, everything else in the film is pretty straightforward as far as subplots and such, but I wish we had more suspense towards the end of the film because a little more buildup would have made it better. The opening scene with the substitute teacher also could have been done a lot better than it was. I think they had in their heads how it should go, but just not well executed. It wasn't a bad film at all, it just needed a little work at times, but with that being said I am going to give the film an B for a final grade.