High School Confidential (film)

Plot

Investigating a narcotics ring, a young police officer poses as a student Tony Baker to infiltrate a high school. He lives in an apartment with Gwen Dulaine, a married woman who pretends to be his aunt in public but attempts to seduce Tony in private.

Tony flirts with pupil Joan Staples and incurs the wrath of teacher Arlene Williams as he makes acquaintances in school. He discovers that Joan uses marijuana and inquires about where she purchases it. He ultimately learns that a mysterious man known only as "Mr. A" is the one who sells drugs to the students, helped by an assistant called Bix.

With help from an undercover cop, Quinn, who risks his life to save Mike's, the criminals are apprehended and Joan promises Mike that her drug use is over.

Cast

Box office

According to MGM records the film earned $1,290,000 in the US and Canada and $625,000 elsewhere, resulting in a profit of $578,000. However, the follow up films Zugsmith made for the studio, including The Beat Generation and Platinum High School, lost money.

In popular culture

This film is sampled on White Zombie's album La Sexorcisto: Devil Music, Vol. 1 on four separate occasions. The "Do you want to start a rumble?" conversation, the "Drop it, buster!" line, the "tomorrow's a drag" poem, and the Columbus speech ("the only thing square about this world...").

In the 1980 song "High School Confidential" by the Canadian new wave band Rough Trade (album: Avoid Freud), singer Carole Pope refers to the star of this film, Mamie Van Doren.