HIGH SCHOOL CAESAR - "Mob Rule In A High School" (1960)

This week's Saturday Night Special is a classic juvenile hot rod film from 1960 called "High School Caesar."

 

Dungeon Hero John Ashley is a spoiled little rich kid named Mat Stevens. He's "Cool as a freezer, that's why they call him Caesar!" IMDB has his name as Matt, but according this poster, I beg to differ.

 

This is Mat's girlfriend Lita Owens as played by Daria Massey. Search as hard as you want, but all you're going to basically find about Daria is, "She was an actress," and a list of her credits. There's a Facebook click bait page based in Nigeria, that says she died last year, but I wouldn't go there unless you're really on the prowl for a virus! 

(After I threw out that challenge, our pal KD found this old newspaper clipping abour Daria. It doesn't really add any new info, but is still interesting as Heck! The movie mentioned in the article titled "The Magic Brain" was actually "The Magic Ring.")

 

The rockin' soundtrack was written by the phenomenal Nicholas Carras who composed the music for an incredible array of films like "Missile To The Moon," "She Demons," "Date Bait," "Frankenstein's Daughter," "The Astro-Zombies," and more!

 

The High School election is rigged, and Mat has his pals making sure that he wins!

 

 

Mat's best friend is called Cricket, and he wants to go out with this special blonde he likes named Wanda, and Mat guarantees that she will be Cricket's girlfriend, except Wanda has other plans!

 

 

The kids are all hanging out drinking Cokes at their favorite joint called The Wagon. That's Wanda on the far left. Wanda was played by Judy (Adventures Of Superman, Magnificent Obsession) Nugent.

 Mat's rich parents are out of the country, so he's running all kinds of rackets at the school. He's even mean to the service people employed by his parents.

It's gotta be depressing to be twenty-six, and still be in high school. That's how old John was when he made this film!

The most important thing in life to Mat is to keep his hair slicked back.

 

 

The kids all decide to have a hot rod race! Mat tells everybody that there is a $2.00 entry fee to race, and when they balk, he tells them that the winner will get this special coin that he has.

 The guy who was running for President against Mat wins the race, and the coin, but after the race is over, Mat with Cricket in the car, run Kelly off the road.

 

Kelly dies in the accident, and Mat retrieves his coin, and then Mat and Cricket will deny knowing anything about the accident.

 

One of Mat's rackets is that he sells stolen tests to any kid who has five bucks, and doesn't want to fail. A new test comes up that he needs a copy of, so he sends his goons to the office to get it!

The two dummies almost get caught by the Principal, and it really pisses Mat off!

This shot is iconic 1960! A stud and two dolls!

 

Wanda is walking down the street, when Mat forces her into the car. Cricket is in the driver's seat, and Mat tells him to take a hike. He tells Cricket he wants Wanda for himself and that Cricket can now have Lita. Cricket's not happy, but leaves anyway. In the meantime, the coin falls out of Mat's pocket.

 

Wanda has the coin and gets away, and takes off running, and at first Mat pursues her on foot, and then in his car! At one point she hides under this bridge with Mat standing right above her.

 

Meanwhile Crickets heads back to the club, and when he gets there he tells all the kids that Mat killed Kelly, and in the meantime Wanda goes back to the rest of the kids, and tells them that Mat had Kelly's coin. Steve (Agent For H.A.R.M.) Stevens is Cricket.

 

 

Mat gives up on finding Wanda, and heads back to The Wagon where they are supposed to be having a big birthday party for him, but nobody's there.

 

 

The kids all turn on him, and the guy who owns The Wagon calls the cops, and the blasphemous reign of the mighty Caesar is put to an end, once and for all! Kind of reminds me of recent political events, just on a smaller scale!