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| Title: HIGH SCHOOL HELLCATS Year: 1958 Rating: ***1/2 |
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 diner waiter Brett Halsey blandly intrudes... along with scenes involving Joyce's crummy parents... because the downright stunning yet still equally doe-eyed, girl-next-door vulnerable I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF starlet is far more interesting with the female antagonists her age...
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Jana Lund and Yvonne Lime in HIGH SCHOOL HELLCATS
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Meanwhile the HELLCAT leader's another pretty, full-lipped blonde... but Jana Lund has a glib sneer that means dirty 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 thug in the short, sassy, ferociously rugged firebrand Dolly Crane played by Susanne Sidney...
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| Jana Lund with Heather Ames and Susanne Sidney in HIGH SCHOOL HELLCATS with Nancy Kilgas |
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.
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| Jana Lund in HIGH SCHOOL HELLCATS |
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Heather Ames and Susanne Sidney in HIGH SCHOOL HELLCATS
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Taking Opening Credit for HIGH SCHOOL HELLCATS
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| Jana Lund with Heather Ames and Susanne Sidney in HIGH SCHOOL HELLCATS |
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| Jana Lund and Yvonne Lime in HIGH SCHOOL HELLCATS |
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| Open-minded teacher Rhoda Williams in HIGH SCHOOL HELLCATS |
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| Scene stealer Susanne Sidney in HIGH SCHOOL HELLCATS |
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| Yvonne Lime in HIGH SCHOOL HELLCATS |
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| Yvonne Lime in HIGH SCHOOL HELLCATS |
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| Yvonne Lime in HIGH SCHOOL HELLCATS |
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| Yvonne Lime in HIGH SCHOOL HELLCATS |
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| Yvonne Lime in HIGH SCHOOL HELLCATS |
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| Yvonne Lime in HIGH SCHOOL HELLCATS |
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Yvonne Lime in HIGH SCHOOL HELLCATS with Brett Halsey
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Yvonne Lime in HIGH SCHOOL HELLCATS with Heather Ames
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| Susanne Sidney in HIGH SCHOOL HELLCATS |
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