HIGH SCHOOL HELLCATS seems like three movies in one, and the titular tale... about a gang of tough girl bullies playing tricks on beautiful blonde new girl Yvonne Lime... is not only the best, but should have been everything...
What a shame that a breezy, completely filler romance with Lime's Joyce Martin with local greasy spoon waiter Brett Halsey blandly intrudes... along with filler scenes involving Joyce's crummy parents... because she's far more interesting dealing with the female antagonists her age...
Meanwhile the HELLCAT leader's another pretty, full-lipped blonde like our vulnerable leading lady... but Jana Lund has a glib sneer that means business, initially tricking Joyce into wearing slacks when they're not allowed on campus...
Even by the school's helpful and progressive teacher Rhoda Williams - yet the best character is gang leader Lund's right hand dame in the short, sassy, ferociously rugged firebrand Dolly Crane played by Susanne Sidney...
She alone ignites the film's opening credits with a flick of a switchblade - then becomes a creepy, last-minute movie monster inside a dark, closed-down movie theater finale that should have lasted longer...
But as with many 1950's teenage rebellion flicks... including the legendary REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE... the cautionary tale style of melodrama encroaches exploitive chills and thrills built into such a terrific title that, while deserving a better plot, did have the right actresses on board: who simply needed far more to do, or react to.
What a shame that a breezy, completely filler romance with Lime's Joyce Martin with local greasy spoon waiter Brett Halsey blandly intrudes... along with filler scenes involving Joyce's crummy parents... because she's far more interesting dealing with the female antagonists her age...
Meanwhile the HELLCAT leader's another pretty, full-lipped blonde like our vulnerable leading lady... but Jana Lund has a glib sneer that means business, initially tricking Joyce into wearing slacks when they're not allowed on campus...
Even by the school's helpful and progressive teacher Rhoda Williams - yet the best character is gang leader Lund's right hand dame in the short, sassy, ferociously rugged firebrand Dolly Crane played by Susanne Sidney...
She alone ignites the film's opening credits with a flick of a switchblade - then becomes a creepy, last-minute movie monster inside a dark, closed-down movie theater finale that should have lasted longer...
But as with many 1950's teenage rebellion flicks... including the legendary REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE... the cautionary tale style of melodrama encroaches exploitive chills and thrills built into such a terrific title that, while deserving a better plot, did have the right actresses on board: who simply needed far more to do, or react to.