618-High School Big Shot

Film Year:  1959
Genre:  Drama, Crime
Director:  Joel Rapp
Starring:  Tom Pittman, Virginia Aldridge, Howard Veit, Malcolm Atterbury
MST Season:  6
Featured Short:  "Out of this World"

The Short

Bread, an important food and a healthy food.  This of course was filmed pre-Gluten-Free-mania.

Out of This World is an instructional short put forth to train vendors of bread and other baked goods of how to properly stock and sell their products while maintaining good relations with the stores you service.  It just does so with an ill-conceived attempt at a “story.”  It turns out that the war between Heaven and Hell only boils down to one thing:  bread vendors.  The collection of these particular souls shall populate the armies of the angels and demons when they wage war come Apocalypse.  In the meantime, a deceptive little devil makes a bet with a sexy angel that one particular bread vendor is on his way to Hell due to poor salesmanship.  The angel disagrees and visits our resident bread vendor as he goes about his daily business.

One thing that can be claimed about this short is that it does get its point across, and pushes some helpful tips to those who it’s instructing.  However it’s bogged down by too much nonsense in its attempted “storyline.”  The Angel and Devil characters slow the short down and make it feel like it’s been forever when it finally gets its point across.  And the whole angelic and demonic thing itself is a bit overthinking how you’re presenting your subject.  I’d argue that if they wanted to go for the “good vs. evil” motif, a much easier way to do it would have been by presenting the Angel and the Devil as the two sides of a conscience instead of an actual angel and devil.  It would abbreviate exposition and get straight to the point.

Tom Servo pretty much nails the intent of the short with his final riff as he leaves the theater, mimicking a gruff head honcho laughing about how hot the lead actress was and then reiterating the points the short made.  There’s pretty much no other way it could have played out in that room.

The Movie

*I HAVE SURVIVED WATCHING THIS MOVIE UNRIFFED*

Cheapie melodrama High School Big Shot tells the story of Marv, a high school student who is seduced into helping the school vixen Betty cheat.  When caught, Marv loses his chance at getting into college and is forced to support his alcoholic father by taking a job at the docks.  While working, Marv overhears a drug deal worth one million dollars, and enlists a safecracker to help him steal it in an attempt to help him fix his life and win over Betty.  But Betty has better ideas, plotting to steal the money and run away with her real boyfriend.

The drama hits the viewer over the head with a sledgehammer while trudging through this bleak story about everyone in the world being an asshole.  The story is a tried and true attempt to make Marv a human doormat that was dealt a bad batch of cards, but the truth is a lot of what goes wrong with his life were the result of his own decisions.  That said, while the surface of Marv’s actions seem to be driven by stupidity, a case can be made that loneliness drives people to do less than smart things, especially when a member of the opposite sex is involved.  I’d hesitate to say High School Big Shot is a successful portrayal of a such incident, but the motivation of the main character is less absurd than it seems on the surface.  Let’s say that High School Big Shot’s successful to unsuccessful portrayal is about fifty-fifty.

Everything leads up to an ending that is clearly trying to make a statement about why good people do bad things.  It’s more food for thought than your average MST movie, as it attempts to explain motivation behind that quiet man that suddenly breaks the law that one day.  There’s likely a smarter and more handsome production out there that makes this point though.

Kudos goes to star Tom Pittman, who plays Marv about as well as possible and if the movie has any gas in the tank it’s because Pittman holds it on his shoulders.  Unfortunately High School Big Shot was Pittman’s final role, having died in a car accident after the film’s completion.  I can’t predict that stardom was in his future, but surely something better than this film would have been around the corner had he lived to see it.

The Episode

This episode opens up with a short that’s merely adequate.  It’s not that Out of This World doesn’t give them openings, and it’s not that Mike and the bots don’t take the openings, but it seems like there is a gross overestimation of just how funny they can make this short.  While the short itself is silly, it goes in circles and often displays scenes that are pretty much exactly the same over and over again.  Perhaps it’s the Starfighters of shorts, only with more purpose.  Riffing makes you smile, rarely rising to the occasion of an all-out laugh.

In a rarity for a Mystery Science Theater episode, the shift in gears for the feature film is a huge step up from the short.  High School Big Shot has more than a little in common with fan favorite I Accuse My Parents, what with the teenage loser being caught up in a criminal ring storyline running through both.  The riffing styles are similar, as we find Mike and the bots zero in on the Marv’s less successful qualities.  The movie tries to gain the audience’s sympathy, which is something our riffers don’t have to offer.  So of course, it’s “Ready, aim, fire!”  Ultimately hampering the experience of this particular film is that, in comparison to I Accuse My Parents, High School Big Shot is a slower, cheaper, and far less ambitious (lol) picture, which tends to push audience interest to the wayside.  Riffs do remain sharp despite this, with plenty of mileage on Marv’s alcoholic father and his hussy of a double-dealing “girlfriend-in-name-only.”  When the movie turns dour, Mike and the bots defy it and keep things light and fun.

Host segments mostly serve to exist.  I enjoyed the opening segments the most, which feature Mike with a headache and the bots with many loud instruments, Frank cloning a dinosaur, and Mike accidentally creating a giant Servo.  The majority of the rest are directly inspired by the short and the film, and tend to be more silly than funny.  There is a stiff presentation of specialty breads, Crow and Servo “safecracking” Gypsy’s diary, and a reenactment of the climactic shootout with water guns.

High School Big Shot may not always have the steam to be labeled one of the better episode of the series, but it peaks at some swell highs and there are just enough laughs to recommend it.  A lukewarm short and unimpressive host segments tend to be its biggest speed bumps, and if you can make it past a sour movie there is a lot of laughs during the theater segments.

Good

The DVD

High School Big Shot was released by Shout Factory in it's Volume XXXVIII set.  Audio was exception and minor tape flaws appear on the video.  The extras include the uncut feature film, which is in scratchy but watchable shape.  There is also a trailer featured.

Out of This World was featured on Rhino’s Shorts Volume 3 disc which was an online exclusive with purchase of the Essentials set through Rhino’s website.  Unfortunately I do not own this disc.