User Reviews

"Oh I know you, you're that Shakespeare Queen that Beatty dumped!"

Once you've seen this black and white cheapie from 59' all you can say is: Poor Marv, poor, poor Marv.......

High School Big Shot is just a riot (largely thanks to Mike Nelson & Co.) I've seen it many times and clocking in at a mere 70 minutes the Big Shot doesn't take long to reach it's dreary conclusion. So what's it all about? Just this, homely nerd/high school senior Marv Grant is toiling through his depressing life with his dad, a broke, dead-beat, drunkard known simply as Mr. Grant. Marv works part-time as a shipping clerk at "the warehouse" for the mostly legit, but slightly-crooked Mr. Matthews; Marv provides the soul income between the two of them - and sadly it's pop's mooching off his son, which is the opposite of usual. Marv is also an A-student, with a love for Shakespeare and it's in the classroom of a certain "strict" English teacher, a one Mr. Carter that Marv catches the attention of his one true love AND his ultimate undoing: a manipulative, two-faced, tight sweater-wearing, hussy, named Beatty! And so the plot begins to thicken.

And so one fateful afternoon, Marv, ever the Teacher's Pet, flaunts his keen intellect on Shakespeare and much to Mr. Carter's approval, nails the answer on several key-points; this one event really set's the ball in motion, because it's at this moment where the initial spark forms inside Beatty's deceitful little mind and she soon put's her moves on young gullible Marv. But now another character enters the fray, one who ALSO has the hot's for Beatty, a hot-tempered hood named Vince Rumbo the school bully, who amusingly enough, feels that Marv emasculated him somehow with his superior knowledge of Shakespeare - Literary Showboating if you will. And after a brief chat with Mr. Carter, Vince is waiting for him outside, confronting Marv threateningly by grabbing him by the shirt collar, then enter's Beatty, who quickly tames the big lug with a few choice word's, because you see she's Vince's girl, Vince exit's the scene and Beatty then expertly sets her plan in motion and easily hooks poor Marv. She only want's Marv for one thing: his comprehensive understanding of Shakespeare and his works or more to-the-point she want's Marv to write a term paper of infamous rogue for her. In other words, cheat. It's all part of Beatty's grand scheme of graduating high school (Carter's class is a BIG thorn in her side, as you'll see) and then being whisked away by her true love Vince.

And now we cut to the warehouse, where Marv overhears his boss talking about the workings of a deal in the works, that involves one million dollars being deposited in the safe in his office, Marv, with a very busy and convoluted conscience (sweat is literally beading on the brow!) quickly starts a scheme of his own. But the very next day, Beatty's cruel betrayal - Marv is reeling in the wake of her vile treachery and consequently he finds himself in a downward spiral. First off Mr. Carter easily sniffed out the quality of Marv's work regarding the fraudulent term paper, he then re-neg's his offer on a scholarship he had in mind for Marv, then Beatty - all bothered and in a huff dumps him and to further depress him - his dad not only loses his job, but he also get's dumped by his date as well and he promptly returns to the bottle to drowned his sorrow's. A triple-whammy by my count. And I'll tell you it's an AWESOMELY bleak and depressing, downbeat scene when Marv walks through that door and see's his dad passed-out, drunk, with a bottle in his lap.

Increasingly desperate and yet somehow still hopelessly in love with Beatty, he takes a walk downtown to a certain liquor store, the proprietor of the joint is the shady Sam Tallman, who happens to know Harry March an infamous safe-crack "maybe the best in the business". The very next night the 3 of them meet in a dimly-lit backroom at Sam's place and discuss their plan on: How To Grab The Million. Later at "Joe's Diner" (on 7th and Adams) dumb-ass Marv inexplicably tells Beatty every detail of the heist he's planned >>BAD MOVE MARV<<, then that no-good Beatty Alexander set's out to betray Marv once again, by immediately spilling the beans to Vince, who then with the help of his two cronies Burt and Larry devise a plan to steal Marv's new-found loot. As you no doubt can see by now, the triangle of Marv, Beatty and Vince is all very much a tragic series of inner-tangled events - most of which were easily avoidable.

The night of the heist, be there at 10:56 or all is lost. Marv and his crew of two disembark for the warehouse, however an untimely traffic accident delays their arrival by a few precious minutes, dejected and thinking they've missed all the action, but then suddenly "Johnson" the night watchmen comes up a running to the front-door "Sorry I'm late boss there was an accident" and on that note Sam Tallman draws his trusty blackjack, rears back his hand AND........................ well I shan't give the ending away, it's up to -You- to see.

Despite my affections for this movie, IT IS a cheap and for the most part, bad movie. And when you watch this flick you're essentially watching the GHOST of Tom Pittmann, as Tom kicked it soon after in a drunk-driving accident; he ran his Porsch off the hilly, winding roads of Benedict Canyon, on Halloween night 1958, after getting plastered at a party. His mangled corpse was not discovered until 3 weeks after the fact. High School Big Shot, released the following year, kinda serves as a grim swansong for Marv Grant a.k.a. Tom Pitmann a.k.a. Jerry Lee Alten.

There seems to be a time in the 50s and 60s where a sub genre of exploitation film (though there may be those who object to my use of the term) existed involving teenagers who drift into crime. I assume that this was part of some kind of shock value but I'm really not sure. High School Big Shot is just such a film. Marv Grant (Tom Pittman) is a poor, nerdy high school student who begins dating the popular Betty Alexander (Virginia Aldridge). It eventually becomes clear, however, that Betty was only using him for money, which begs the question as to why she decided to date the poor kid if that was her goal. Because Marv has virtually none to spare he makes it up to her by helping her cheat at her schoolwork, an act that results in his acceptance at a college rescinded and her expelled. I realize that plagiarism and cheating are serious offenses but even still I find the punishment a little harsh. Shortly after this Betty dumps Marv and returns to her bully meathead of an ex Vince Rumbo (Howard Veit). Because Marv still wants to be with Betty (in spite of how unapologetically shallow and awful she is) Marv hatches a plan with two local crooks to steal from his place of work. With a plot like that, I didn't really expect it to be good. It is fairly formulaic and not executed well. The acting is passable for the most part but it's pretty forgettable and uninteresting. It's also just plain stupid and has all the makings of a film noir done wrong. As usual, however, the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode is a lot of fun so go and watch that.

Joel Rapp writes and directs this low budget flick about teenagers making trouble for themselves. Tom Pittman plays the role of Marv. He's a good guy, but lacks money. Marv is bright and is depending on getting a college scholarship by recommendation from one of his professors. The prettiest girl in his English class, Betty(Virginia Aldridge), manipulates Marv into writing her term paper. Promises of romance has Marv writing the paper; but when the professor realizes that he wrote the paper, he pulls the college recommendation. Betty tells Marv that her affections depend on money and lots of it. Otherwise, she will go back to her old boyfriend, Vince(Howard Veit), who believes he is the high school big shot. At his part-time job, Marv overhears his boss plotting a drug transaction that will be worth a million dollars in cold cash. Being desperate for money, he tells Betty he will come into money soon. Of course, Betty tells Vince, who plans to intercept the robbery. Is this girl worth all the trouble? Other players in the cast: Malcolm Atterbury, Peter Leeds, Byron Foulger, John Barrick and Stanley Adams.

Badly acted, cheaply made, insipidly written. Those are just a few comments which I could make about this wretched good teen turned hood exploitation mess made primarily for the drive-in crowd, and even the worst of those was a step above this. It doesn't even have the good taste to be bad taste, just duller than the long- haired music teens were rebelling against. A down on his luck good kid turns to crime to make ends meet. Typical teen romantic issues attempt to add a human element to the story but the actors all seem far older than High School kids of the time. At only an hour, this was torture to get through. So there I must place the blame on myself. Others have different options, so if you are for warned, consider yourself lucky.

drab morality tale about a high school kid who's pretty much the now-stereotypical nerd. He's smart, but has no friends, no social skills, and a lazy loser of a father who borrows money from HIM. A pretty girl hits on him(he should've known she wanted something-he's supposed to be smart, right?). She manipulates the poor desperate fool into writing her term paper on Shakespeare, which the teacher immediately knows she couldn't have written. He loses the girl(not that he ever really had her) the confidence of his teacher, and his college scholarship, all in one fell blow.

Marv is so silly and desperate for love that he decides to rob some heroin dealers who are running the stuff through the warehouse he works at. Then maybe the trashy little slut will be impressed and want to marry him. Sad, really sad. Marv is such a pathetic dope(and pretty brainless, for a supposedly smart guy. I mean, trying to rob drug dealers? Has this kid got a screw loose?) that you stop feeling sorry for him and get the dreadful urge to kick him in the butt, instead.

The girl, of course, tells her boyfriend about the robbery Marv boasted of to her, and talks him and his cronies into stealing the money from Marv and company. They try to do so, and in the process manage to shoot several people. The cops show up at the same time, and the idiot Marv is dragged away, a total disgrace forever. I know this thing was geared towards making teens behave themselves by showing them the consequences of bad behavior, but all it really illustrated was the consequences of stupid behavior. Which is the premature end of your film career, of course. Goodbye, Marv, we never really knew ya. And thank goodness for that.

Desperate for money, smart, but dirt poor high school genius Marvin "Marv" Grant (a fine and likeable performance by Tom Pitmman) plots a daring heist so he can acquire loads of cash and have a shot at fetching crush Betty (nicely played to the conniving hilt by Virginia Aldridge).

Writer/director Joel Rapp relates the tight and absorbing story at a constant pace, maintains an admirably sincere tone throughout, and takes time to develop the characters. The big heist is quite tense and exciting while the grim ending packs a potent punch. Moreover, there are sturdy supporting contributions from Malcolm Atterbury as Marv's pathetic alcoholic dad, Howard Veit as mean bully Vince Rumbo, Stanley Adams as ace safecracker Harry March, Louis Quinn as amiable lug Samuel Tallman, and Peter Leeds as no-nonsense English teacher Mr. Carter. A cool little movie.

It's funny, but I can't believe this film has an overall score below 2.0!! That would seem to indicate that this is a truly awful film...yet I liked it despite its limitations and actually recommend you see it.

The film is about a bright and seemingly nice young man named Marv. However, despite having excellent grades and a possible future in college, he is a lonely nerd---but the actor playing Marv is 27 years old--far too old to be playing a character who is supposed to be 17! If you can ignore this, what happens next is pretty interesting--even if his character occasionally acts too dumb--showing the writers really weren't that good despite some good story ideas. You see, Marv is supposed to be a genius--yet he also does MANY stupid things...too stupid! When Marv is inexplicably approached by a pretty classmate (Betty), he falls head over heels---as it's the first girl to take notice of him AND she's a hottie. However, Marv isn't aware that this girl is a devil! She really is NOT interested in him but wants to use him to help her to graduate--as without some help (or cheating) she won't graduate. Poor Marv--you really have to feel sorry for the schmuck. Well, at least that is until you see just how dopey this guy gets. You see, when he learns that Betty is using him, instead of getting angry, the sap wants to impress her--even though she obviously isn't worth it! Now despite how dumb his motivation is, I did like Marv's plan to win her back. When Marv accidentally learns that his boss is involved with buying and selling drugs, he also learns that there will be $1,000,000 in the company safe--and it's ripe for the picking. So, this teen(!) organizes a mini-gang and sets out to rip off the drug dealer. The rest of the film plays a lot like the merging of film noir AND a teenage romance! I loved how black the ending was--so violent and fatalistic...so gritty! It sure ended well and never bored me.

This could have been so much better than it turned out. Tom Pittman gives a good performance and some of the older actors do well with what they have to work with, but it just doesn't work.

First, the actors are much too old to play high school students, especially Howard Veit (Vince). He looks about thirty. Second, it's hard to sympathize with poor Marv, especially since Betty is not all that hot, to start with.

*******Spoilers****** The ending is so strange. It looks like the director intended for Pittman's character to get shot, but there are no gunshots...he's just knocked to the cement, where he lays there until the ambulance drivers pick him up and place him on a stretcher (face down!). What were his injuries? A skinned knee? Goofy! Vince has just shot his girlfriend dead without any remorse whatsoever, yet he simply shoves Marv to the ground and rushes off, despite the fact that he makes no secret of the fact that he hates the kid. And to make matters even sillier, Marv begs the police to tell his father he's sorry. (Duh! Hey Marv. You just got knocked around. I think you will have plenty of opportunities to tell your father you're sorry...in person). And this writer didn't get an Oscar nomination? Skip it, unless you get to watch it on MST.

This movie reminded me a lot of a song by the Dead Kennedys called "Straight A's." However, unlike this film, the hero of the DK's song turns to suicide. You'll wish this bozo had resorted to killing himself instead of doing the crime he did. The whole thing was convoluted and in the beginning, you sympathize with the hero of the film, then he quickly betrays your sympathies. The long sequences of just showing the hero's face while he delivers a monologue drag the film down quite a bit. Avoid this if possible.

This movie was amazing! First off, everyone dies! actually, not everyone, but i couldn't see well enough to tell who died and who didn't. so i am just assuming that everyone was killed in the end. Second, the girl in this story obviously has something really special about her that you don't tell you about for two boys to be that in love with her.

I'm pretty sure that his father loves him, however he's to into the girl to know. It's just really sad because he was about to be rich too, but because he and his son don't talk, he doesn't know about it.

also that dad kills himself. just a warning and there was a teacher. he was pretty cool but very dramatic. :) sweet mobsters. they are amazingly cool and wear broaches.

the money gets dumped in the ocean.

Sordid, tepid, and stupid account of 26-year-old high school senior Marv (Tom Pittman) who goes from smart kid to hood, all because of a drunken loafing father (Malcom Atterbury) and a chick named Betty (Virginia Aldridge).

The film opens in a high school English class, presided over by Peter Leeds. Leeds attempts to engage the class:

Leeds: "To whom was Hamlet's graveside speech delivered?" Student named Vince Rumbo: "I don't know, man. I didn't catch the name and address on the envelope."

Marv comes to the rescue with the correct answer, which ticks Vince off. Vince is further ticked off when his babe Betty shows some interest in Marv (cue the saxophone). You know, those high school dames really dig those nerds. Just ask me. Of course, I never went to school with anyone named Betty, but I did know Archie, Veronica, and Jughead. Even Marv's father is impressed: "Hey, she's the best looking chick in the school." In fact, she's the only chick in the school, and in the flick, unless you count a quick bit by Atterbury's real-life wife when she discovers him "hanging around the house."

Betty plays Marv like a cheap fiddle (cue the saxophone), and gets him to write her term paper on Shakespeare. Leeds does a quick google search and nails the two of them. Betty fails the class, and Marv loses his chance at a college scholarship.

But all is not lost. Marv overhears his boss (Byron Foulger) planning a drug deal worth a cool million dollars. Marv enlists a safecracker, played by Stanley Adams, whom "Star Trek" fans will recognize as the guy responsible for all those damn tribbles. How Marv knows a safecracker is anyone's guess. So Adams and brother-in-law Louis Quinn sign on to steal the mil from Foulger's safe before the drugs arrive. Marv can't resist blabbing to Betty that he's gonna have plenty of dough for her; Betty wastes no time in telling Vince about the plan, and suggests he steal the money from Marv (cue the saxophone).

In the whacko finale, Marv and the safecrackers stage the heist, while Foulger and his drug dealer arrive from one direction, Vince and his goons arrive from another, and Betty from another (cue the saxophone). And no one sees each other until they are about 10 yards apart.

Bodies pile up as shots are fired indiscriminately. The million bucks goes floating into the river. We get a closeup of Foulger's nostrils (not pretty). The filmmakers split the drugs.

Pittman is decent, and looks like a cross between Gary Oldman and Billy Jack. But he is too old for the part. He died almost a year before the film was released. Aldridge is good at playing the town mattress (cue the saxophone), but the least they could have done was show her in various stages of undress.

This film got roasted by the boys at MST3K, but it's actually a neat and nasty piece of low-budget film noir. The plot is tight, the characters are believable (within the good-boy-gets-obsessed-with-bad-girl genre), the pacing is solid, the climax is well-handled, and the cast is bolstered by several fine character actors. True, most of the time you want to hit the protagonist with a brick, but he's actually quite effectively creepy when he plays the mastermind. The scenes between him and his dad are quite powerful, in a minimalist kind of way. Sure it's depressing, but that's the point. Good movie.

Make no mistake about, High School Bigshot is a bad movie.

High School Bigshot is about a geek who makes a plan to become rich and get the girl. However, he goes about it all wrong, and of course by the end of the movie ends up dead along with a few other people, thankfully including the girl.

The moral of the story is all women care about is wealth. Also for us men, I guess we're just supposed to accept we either "have it" or "we don't have it"!

I could easily see how this movie could be rated a 1, however it is above that of the very worst of movies. The acting's not totally horrible, and production values aren't ultra-terrible. Over all it's a bad movie and not worth viewing for many reasons. If you insist of course at torturing yourself, watch the MST version.

2/10 (maybe a 1.5/10)