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Several performances that young Tom Pittman did were released posthumously the following year after his tragic death in an automobile crash in 1958. High School Big Shot was the last of them and I feel bad that this is the epitaph of young Tom's career. He should better be remembered as one of Dean Jagger's sons in The Proud Rebel.

But for better or worse Pittman was the lead in this independent B feature probably popular in drive-ins at the time. He plays a poor and sensitive kid who for love of the high school vixen Virginia Aldridge embarks on a life of crime.

Truth be told he's not got much of a life to begin with, but he has a shot at a college scholarship that his English teacher Peter Leeds is going to recommend him for. But when Pittman is discovered doing a paper for Aldridge, Leeds withdraws his recommendation. I think that was a bit much. If Leeds had any understanding he would have known it was the kid's hormones in overdrive which they are at that age.

Anyway Pittman finds that the warehouse he works at after school is to be used as a drop for syndicate money, untraceable syndicate money to be used to purchase heroin. And Pittman finds a safe-cracker in Stanley Adams to help him with the job.

But it all goes wrong, not the least of which is that Pittman tells Aldridge and she tells her hoodlum boyfriend Howard Veit who decides he wants the loot. It all ends in a bloody mess.

Adams is good as the philosophical safe-cracker and Malcolm Atterbury contributes a nice performance as Pittman's alcoholic father. But the film such as it is belongs to Pittman who is a sensitive soul gone terribly wrong. And I'm sure Pittman knew this one was a Thanksgiving feast yet his performance in this very cheaply made film is good.

And this review is dedicated to Tom Pittman another sad Hollywood tragedy.

Times I look back to high school and it amazes me that I never went lower than Marvin did in this BAD film.

Poor Marv is the main character who's bad luck just gets worse and worse. Despite his intelligence, he manages to get bullied, exploited, supports his lousy deadbeat Dad, and plenty more goof-ups including a daring heist which let's say doesn't go fully to plan. Of course, the viewer feels no empathy with anyone in this film, so all this disastrous gloom bounces off like harmless zeta rays. Recommended for those days you're feeling down, pop this film in and you'll smile and say, "I'm so glad I'm not Marv!"

While I, like my fellow commentators, enjoyed the MST3K send-up of this flick, I also agree with them that "High School Big Shot" definitely had some redeeming values.

The biggest value: the acting. For such a low-budget movie, the actors did a very good job. Tom Pittman pulled off the difficult task of making the audience sympathize with Marvin Grant, but not excuse his behavior. As his world goes to hell, destroyed by petty greed (both his own and others), the pain is evident on his face. His father, played by Malcolm Atterbury, comes off as a mainly honest, good guy who's made a few mistakes that have continually haunted him. As Betty Alexander, Virginia Aldridge plays the perfect conniving ice queen, and Howard Veit breathes convincing life into brainless jock Vince Rumbo (now THERE'S a name!).

But the true standouts are Stanley Adams and Louis Quinn as Harry March and Samuel Tallman, respectively. Although they have limited screentime, they effortlessly make you believe that here are lawbreakers with honor. As Harry says, "I am a thief, not a crook." You know that if you hire these two as part of your caper, they won't doublecross you and will stay with you until the bitter end. To once again quote Harry, they are the "last of the gentlemen;" criminals with hearts of slightly tarnished gold. Adams and Quinn truly shine in the roles.

The writing and directing by Joel M. Rapp is serviceable, and Carlo Lodato's editing works fine. Gerald Fried contributes a very nice score to this picture.

Overall, I'd have to recommend checking out this picture, whether the original or the MSTreatment.

My favorite riff from High School Big Shots airing on the best show ever. While being aired on MST3K is a sure sign of being a clunker this film actually has a bit to offer and the story has been regurgitated countless times in bigger budget modern day action pictures, Dead Presidents and Revevoir Dogs (which is itself a shot by shot rip off of a Hong Kong action picture) to name a couple. Not to say H.S.B.S was any sort of originator but it's certainly watchable without the zingers flying from Mike and the Bots. This thing oozes cheese but it also maintains a nice grit. Poor Marv gets screwed out of a sure college scholarship after being duped by some bimbo, dad's a suicidal drunk, the big heist is an obvious debacle waiting to happen and when it does unravel people die. Like I said , High School Big Shot wasn't an originator but it has it's imitators and thats something you can't say for many MSTied movies.

**SPOILERS** Not at all popular with the girls in high school young Marvin "Marve" Grant, Tom Pittman is at the end of every school bullies fist for showing them up with his vast knowledge and dedication to study that made him a straight A student.

One afternoon the class bully's girl Betty Alexander, Virginia Aldridge, makes a play for Marve. This has her brutish boyfriend Vince Rumbo,almost punch him out. Betty is failing in English and wan't Marve to do her term paper in order for her to pass which Marve does without thinking of what he's getting into. Later at class the English teacher Mr.Carter, Peter Leeds, realizes that the bird-brained Betty couldn't have wrote such an in-dept report of Shakesepare's works and fails her. Mr. Carter also withdraws a recommendation for Marve, who Mr.Carter knows wrote Betty's report, to get a scholarship for college.

Depressed over what happened Marve tries to get back into the good graces of Betty but the only way she would even talk to him is if he can give her jewelry and furs as well as loads of cash which the poor nerd doesn't have.

At home Marve's dad Mr. Grant, Malcolm Atterbury, a widower is down on his luck and in the dumps being a hopeless alcoholic and out of work which doesn't help Marve's already depressing situation a bit. Later in the film Mr. Grant's depression leads him to hang himself.

Working part-time as a shipping clerk Marve overhears his boss. Mr Mathews, Byron Foulger, talk about a big $1,000,000.00 dope deal he's get planned with one of his gangster friends. Marve realizes this is the chance for him to make it big with Betty by giving her all the things that she always dreamed of. As smart as Marve is in school he's a stupid jerk when it comes to girls not realizing that Betty has no interest in him at all and is only using the poor sap for her own selfish gains.

Getting together with a local hood, who doubles as a liquor store owner, Samuel Tallman, Louis Quinn, and his safe cracking brother-in-law Harry March, Stanly Adams, the three plan to rip off Mr. Matthews office safe before he can make the switch and take off with the million dollars. Mave makes a fatal mistake by boasting to Betty later of his plan and the two-timing gold digger gets in touch with the Neanderthal Vince Rumbo to rip off Marve and his fellow crooks after they get Mr. Mathews cash.

Sad ending to a sad story with Betty getting gunned down by an outraged Vince who finally realized what a snake she really is with him getting shot and killed in return in a shootout with the police and the Mathews gang. Marve who had a bright future ends up behind bars with nothing to look forward too but a six by eight foot cell and a social security check when he's finally released from prison in some 30 to 50 years.

It's sad that actor Tom Pittman died on Halloween 1958 in car smash-up on a California highway. Pittman's brief film career included his first movie in 1957 with director's John Frankenheimer's first motion picture "The Young Stranger" and his last cult director Samuell Fuller's very underrated and almost unknown post World War Two Germany classic "Verboten" in 1959 released, like High School Big Shot, the year after Pittman's death.

I saw the MST3K version of this film and it is a bad movie - but its not nearly as bad as its low IMDB rating (currently 1.8 out of 10). At least the movie has a few production values and it apparently had a competent editor (unlike the movies that truly are awful). The primary problem with this movie is that it had no appealing characters whatsoever. The main character, Marv, is so pathetically morose, that he practically asks for all the bad stuff that happens to him. And he isn't very smart either, or he would have figured out to stay away from the conniving girl Betty. And even more pathetic than Marv is his father, who is nothing but a drunken loser. The highlight of the film is the heist sequence at the end but even that is so weakly executed, any excitement it might have added to the film is completely missing. At least this movie made for a very funny MST3K episode, as Mike and the 'Bots do a great job making fun of it.

I'd never heard of actor Pittman, but it turns out he was quite a talented, though ill-fated, young guy. Here he goes from painfully shy to confidently assertive in abrupt, but convincing, fashion. I just wish he and the rest of the cast were better served by the script that loses its way about halfway through.

Almost matching Pittman in the talent department is actress Aldridge. Her teenage vixen is enough to send Joan Crawford into fits of jealousy. Betty (Aldridge) is so good at using her wiles to manipulate the hapless Marv (Pittman) in the first part that I thought the movie would be exceptional for a drive-in cheapie.

Had the screenplay stayed at this sensitive level, namely the ordinary-looking Marv yearning for self-respect amid sneering peers, the potential for something sublime was great. However the script veers off into a sudden and wildly implausible tangent of Marv leading a gang of criminals on a million-dollar heist, ending in as phony a shoot-out as I've seen. Too bad, because the rest of the cast, with the exception of an awkward Veit (Vince), is also unusually good for a cheap production.

In my little book, this was a missed opportunity, a teenage film that could have distinguished itself from the many other drive-in specials of the time. Nonetheless, I now know who Tom Pittman is, and in spades.

Saw this film as an episode of the cult television riffing show, Mystery Science Theater 3000. Most likely I would have never seen the film without them and in the end I did not think this film was all that terrible, but still rather bad. The film does a fairly good job of making one stay tuned to see how things were going to end up and the guy who owned the bar and his brother-in-law were kind of entertaining in their way too, but for the most part you have to watch a completely dummy doing everything he can to win over a girl who is clearly using him. He is supposed to be so smart, but lets her play him for a complete fool. The ending is pretty much a bummer, but that really did not come as a surprise to me.

The story has a guy that is in line to get recommended for a scholarship who really knows his Shakespeare about to get a beating by the dolt of the school before his girl bails him out and then accepts his offer for a date. She goes on another date and of course she would really appreciate it if Marvin (the super chump)can write her paper too. He does, they get caught and Marvin cracks under the pressure and the girl lets him know she was using him, but that does not stop him from planning a heist of one million dollars which he stupidly tells her about and she informs the dolt and then everything gets messed up and people end up getting shot left and right!

This made for a very funny episode of MST3K. The film was short and was preceded by a short that took up an entire section of the show, which leaves me to believe they cut a good deal out of this one as it had a running time of an hour and 10 minutes so there were probably a few things left out like who those two guys were that showed up at the end with the guns. My favorite part was when Servo kept making ferry jokes and Mike just picks him and tosses him.

So this film was not horrible as I was totally curious to see how things were going to end up for Marvin. There was a surprise as far as his father, but I thought it was going to end tragic as far as him and his love interest were concerned. I felt bad for the two gentlemen who Marvin got to pull the heist with him though as they got a bit more than they bargained for mainly due to Marvin. Not only did the guy blab to his love interest about the heist and all the details, he also insisted they leave at a set time instead of going early which ended up being another huge mistake. Be quiet, leave early and then show up at the love of your life in a new car and a smile and say, "Get on in" instead.

At this time, everything just got so redundant in movies as people were just obsessed with making movies about giant leeches, gila monsters, praying mantises and everything in between. It actually was nice to see some variety in B-movies at this time with something completely real. It's still nothing but a B-movie of course. This falls into the trap of just being too boring. I hate it when I have to say that a film being short is one of its biggest pluses. I mean, I certainly didn't want this to be longer! It features a guy in High School who tries to steal a million dollars from heroin dealers or something.

It again makes the mistake of having too much buildup and not much of a payoff. When it all ends, it's mostly pointless and you don't care that everyone's dying left and right. These characters just seem rather dumb in their decisions. It's a downer ending, but not to the point where you get depressed. It falls into too many clichés of a nerd trying to get with a girl who's out of his league and him being bullied. This stuff existed even back then. *1/2

This movie essentially begins with a high school student named "Marvin 'Marv' Grant" (Tom Pittman) having to take care of his alcoholic father known simply as "Mr. Grant" (Malcolm Atterbury) because he cannot hold a steady job. As a result, he barely makes ends meet by working the nightshift at a warehouse operated by some rather seedy businessmen. To his credit, his manages to keep his grades up and even has hopes of getting a scholarship to a nearby college upon graduation. Recognizing this, the prettiest girl at the high school "Betty Alexander" (Virginia Aldridge) pretends to be attracted to him in order to have him write an important term paper which will allow her to graduate. Needless to say, her current boyfriend "Vince Rumbo" (Howard Veit) doesn't particular like it when he sees the two of them together, but he calms down when she explains what is really going on. Unfortunately, while Betty might be able to fool Marv, her luck runs out when the English teacher easily recognizes the fraud she has committed and flunks her on the spot. Naturally, no longer having any use for him, Betty immediately breaks things off with Marv and goes back to Vince. For his part, Marv misreads the situation and thinks that he can make things up to her if he suddenly acquires a lot of money. To that effect, after he overhears his boss talking about putting $1 million in the office safe, he comes up with a plan to steal it that very night. What he doesn't count on, however, is Betty telling Vince about his plans. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this was a very basic, low budget, grade-B movie which suffered from a weak script and somewhat moralistic overtones. Admittedly, I liked the performance of Virginia Aldridge who seemed quite convincing in her role. Even so, the scenes didn't seem to mesh together very well which gave the film a rather choppy feel to it. Likewise, the rather abrupt ending didn't help either. Be that as it may, while I don't consider this to be a bad movie necessarily, the flaws just mentioned were much too apparent and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly below average.

Marv needs money.

His unemployed dad is so poor that he makes Marv give up half his last six bucks so they can both go on three-dollar dates.

He's just lost his scholarship after getting caught writing a term paper for Betty, the prettiest (and only) girl in his class.

And Betty herself has told him he doesn't stand a chance with her unless he can give her what she wants most: money, money, money.

But Marv has mob ties and Marv knows where to find a million dollars cash.

Firstly you'll recognize a number of character actors from days gone by in this movie. Pittman is supposed to be so poor he splits his last 6 bucks with his father to go on a double date. But meanwhile daddy has a nice suit and tie and doesn't and poverty doesn't stop him from finding chicks.

The movie is thinly written and very much aimed at the baby boomers of the day. Is it good? Meh. Not great.

Soon after this film, Pittman was at a Halloween party, left in his sport car and disappeared.

It was nearly a full month before he was found inside his crashed car deep inside Benedict Canyon.

Another Hollywood casualty. Frankly it wasn't such a loss. He's not such a great actor.

I often get a kick out of watching movies from the 1950s and 1960s aimed at the youth market, since more often than not they have a campy edge. (I wonder what people several decades from now will think of youth movies from my generation!) "High School Big Shot" does have its share of unintended humor. It isn't filled with big laughs (though the line about Rock Hudson is a howl), but there are plenty of chuckles, such as the "teen" actors who haven't been teenagers for years. Actually, the surprising thing about the movie is that it has a real cynical edge - most of the characters are flawed and/or corrupt to some degree or another. The one problem I had with the movie is that even at a brief running time (just 60 minutes), it feels considerably padded. However, I will admit that all the same the movie made me interested to see how things would be wrapped up at the end. Maybe it's not worth actively seeking out, but if you should stumble across it, it does have some entertainment for those into ancient juvenile delinquent quickies.