High School Big Shot is a 1959 film starring Tom Pittman, in his final film role, as Marv Grant, a smart high school student whose plans for getting a college scholarship are threatened by his alcoholic father played by Malcolm Atterbury, and his relationship with the most popular girl in school. Filmed in 1958 under the title Blood Money, it was released by executive producer Roger Corman as a double feature with T-Bird Gang in his first Filmgroup release.[1]
Marv Grant (Pittman) is a high school student who lives with his deadbeat, alcoholic father. At school he begins dating the attractive Betty Alexander (Virginia Aldridge), who eventually manipulates him into writing her English class term paper for her. Their teacher figures out that Betty cheated on the paper, and fails her, and also withdraws his recommendation from Marv's college application, leaving him with no chance of earning a scholarship. In anger, Betty dumps Marv and returns to her old boyfriend, Vince, revealing that she had only been using Marv from the beginning.
At his part-time job at the docks, Marv overhears his boss plotting a drug deal for $1 million worth of heroin. The money will be kept in the office safe prior to the deal. In despair, Marv plots to steal the money, with the help of local safecracker Harry March and his brother-in-law Sam Tolman. Marv intends to use the money to help his father and win Betty back. He tells her about the pending robbery to entice her to marry him, and she shows interest, but secretly tasks her boyfriend, Vince, to steal all the money from Marv.
While Marv is at the heist, it's discovered that his father has killed himself. Marv and his two accomplices successfully steal the money, but while attempting to escape, Vince and his gang attempt to take the money. Sam resists and is shot by Vince, which horrifies his accomplices who flee from the scene. Betty arrives on the scene soon afterwards, but Vince blames her for getting him into this situation, and he kills her, too. The drug dealers arrive after, shooting and killing Vince while he attempts to leave with the cash, dropping it off the dock and into the water. While attempting to get the money, the police arrive and shoot down one of the dealers before arresting the others along with Marv.
The film was financed by Roger Corman who was particularly impressed by the performance of Tom Pittman in the lead.[2]
In February 1959 Filmgroup announced they would release ten films. Their first movies were High School Big Shot (1959) and T-Bird Gang (1959) produced by Stanley Bickman.[3]
Reception and legacy
Mystery Science Theater 3000
In 1994, the film was featured in a sixth-season episode of the movie-parody series Mystery Science Theater 3000 alongside the 1954 short film Out of This World. The main topics of ridicule were Marv's wimpy demeanor, huge lips and awkward appearance, his father's pathetic alcoholism, and the overall bleak nature of the film. There was also a running gag involving Tom Servo singing "Don't Pay the Ferryman" whenever characters reached the car ferry, leading to Mike Nelson throwing him across the theater out of frustration.
The ending in particular prompted the writers to dub it "one of the most depressing films we've ever seen" and include a skit where the characters of the show "kill" each other with water guns to mock the fact that most of the major characters were killed in a brief moment of time, nearly one after the other.
The episode was available on DVD by Shout Factory on March 28, 2017 alongside the original unriffed film as a special feature.[4][5]
