Thread by @iowahawkblog

My new favorite movie of all time: High School Confidential (1958). It has EVERYTHING: switchblade fights! Mamie Van Doren! Reefer addicts! Jerry Lee Lewis! Midnight hot rod races! Vampira beatnik poetry! And non-stop hep cat lingo galore, daddy-o!

I literally can't believe I never saw this movie before last night on TCM. Should be available on TCM on demand soon

Plus it has my late great pal Norm Grabowski (uncredited) as one of the Wheeler Dealers, the hoodlum gang that runs the reefer biz at 35-Year Old Student High School

And Michael Landon as head honcho of the Rangers, the high school's top hot rod club

And Charlie Chaplin Jr as undercover narc busboy at the beatnik jazz club owned by local reefer kingpin "Mr A" played by Jackie Coogan - whose movie career started as child costar of Charlie Chaplin Sr in "The Kid" and later became Uncle Fester on The Addams Family

And two chopped lead sled 48 Chevy coupes built by George Barris. Note: no one will be seated during the shocking lead sled flip scene

In short: this is not a movie, it is a 1 hour 25 minute xray of my brain

Footnote: here's a Jackie Coogan tangent I went off on, prompted by a car ID request

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