"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.
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