THE CRUEL SCHOOL

There's only one lesson taught there—conform or suffer.

Above is a promo for the juvenile delinquent scare flick High School Hellcats, one of only two films ever made by Indio Productions, along with Hot Rod Gang (click this link to see the poster for that). There’s not much recommendable about this movie. Plotwise, Joyce, the new girl in school, gets hazed and bullied by Connie, ringleader of the Hellcats. If Joyce doesn’t submit she’ll find life rough. As Connie puts it, “You won’t be invited to any parties and you’ll have very few friends. And you’ll never have any dates with boys. We’ll see to that.” She’s the type of chronic pain who thinks clever ridicule is repeating anything an adult says to her, but in a fake obsequious voice. “Connie, will you please be seated?” Connie: “Yes, sir, I’ll please be seated.” She’ll make you support youthanasia. Heh. While Joyce is lured by the dark side of high school, pulling her toward the light are her square guypal and her goody-good teacher. It’s all pretty banal, neither accomplished enough to merit praise nor bad enough to elicit laughs unless you watch it with professional comedians, but in the ’50s even the most forgettable movies sometimes had unforgettable posters, and the above gem is an example of that phenomenon. The half sheet version below isn’t bad either. High School Hellcats premiered in the U.S. this month in 1958.

Indio Productions, High School Hellcats, Yvonne Lime, Jana Lund, Brett Halsey, Rhoda Williams, poster art, cinema, movie review

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

April 17

1961—Bay of Pigs Invasion Is Launched

A group of CIA financed and trained Cuban refugees lands at the Bay of Pigs in southern Cuba with the aim of ousting Fidel Castro. However, the invasion fails badly and the result is embarrassment for U.S. president John F. Kennedy and a major boost in popularity for Fidel Castro, and also has the effect of pushing him toward the Soviet Union for protection.

April 16

1943—First LSD Trip Takes Place

Swiss scientist Albert Hofmann, while working at Sandoz Laboratories in Basel, accidentally absorbs lysergic acid diethylamide, better known as LSD, and thus discovers its psychedelic properties. He had first synthesized the substance five years earlier but hadn’t been aware of its effects. He goes on to write scores of articles and books about his creation.

April 15

1912—The Titanic Sinks

Two and a half hours after striking an iceberg in the North Atlantic Ocean on its maiden voyage, the British passenger liner RMS Titanic sinks, dragging 1,517 people to their deaths. The number of dead amount to more than fifty percent of the passengers, due mainly to the fact the liner was not equipped with enough lifeboats.

April 15

1947—Robinson Breaks Color Line

African-American baseball player Jackie Robinson officially breaks Major League Baseball’s color line when he debuts for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Several dark skinned men had played professional baseball around the beginning of the twentieth century, but Robinson was the first to overcome the official segregation policy called—ironically, in retrospect—the “gentleman’s agreement.”

April 14

1935—Dust Storm Strikes U.S.

Exacerbated by a long drought combined with poor conservation techniques that caused excessive soil erosion on farmlands, a huge dust storm known as Black Sunday rages across Texas, Oklahoma, and several other states, literally turning day to night and redistributing an estimated 300,000 tons of topsoil.