''Platinum High School'' is a 1960 American
crime
In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definit ...
drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...
romance film
Romance films or movies involve romantic love stories recorded in visual media for broadcast in theatres or on television that focus on passion, emotion, and the affectionate romantic involvement of the main characters. Typically their journey ...
directed by
Charles Haas and starring
Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney (born Joseph Yule Jr.; other pseudonym Mickey Maguire; September 23, 1920 – April 6, 2014) was an American actor. In a career spanning nine decades, he appeared in more than 300 films and was among the last surviving stars of the ...
,
Terry Moore and
Dan Duryea
Dan Duryea ( , January 23, 1907 – June 7, 1968) was an American actor in film, stage, and television. Known for portraying a vast range of character roles as a villain, he nonetheless had a long career in a wide variety of leading and seconda ...
. It was based on the 1960 novel of the same name by
Irving Shulman
Irving Shulman (May 21, 1913 – March 23, 1995) was an American author and screenwriter whose works were adapted into movies. His books included ''The Amboy Dukes,'' ''Cry Tough,'' ''The Square Trap,'' and ''Platinum High School'', all of which ...
.
Plot
Sailing to a coastal
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
island, Steven Conway sets out to find out what caused the mysterious death of his son. Denied food and lodging at his first two stops, Conway goes to a remote and elite military school on Sabre Island. The school is run by Major Redfern Kelly, whose secretary Jennifer Evans wonders why it took Conway four months to come inquire about his son.
Conway explains that he had been in Pakistan the past few months on a business project and only recently found out that the boy's mother, now deceased, had sent him to this exclusive academy with the $10,000 tuition. He asks to see his son's records and to speak to a student, Crip Hastings, who might have witnessed the boy's death.
Jennifer is having an affair with the married Kelly and warns the major not to let Conway speak to the Hastings boy. Three cadets begin to harass Conway, attempting to provoke him into a fight. They taunt Crip as well, warning him to say nothing.
Conway learns that his son was accidentally killed by the cadets in a brutal initiation rite. On the boat home, Jennifer pretends to help, but has arranged an ambush. It backfires as she falls into shark-infested waters while Conway sets the boat ablaze with Kelly aboard. He makes his way back to shore safely when Joe Nibley shoots at the sharks in the water.
Cast
*
Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney (born Joseph Yule Jr.; other pseudonym Mickey Maguire; September 23, 1920 – April 6, 2014) was an American actor. In a career spanning nine decades, he appeared in more than 300 films and was among the last surviving stars of the ...
as Steven Conway
*
Terry Moore as Jennifer Evens
*
Dan Duryea
Dan Duryea ( , January 23, 1907 – June 7, 1968) was an American actor in film, stage, and television. Known for portraying a vast range of character roles as a villain, he nonetheless had a long career in a wide variety of leading and seconda ...
as Maj. Redfern Kelly
*
Conway Twitty
Harold Lloyd Jenkins (September 1, 1933 – June 5, 1993), better known by his stage name Conway Twitty, was an American singer and songwriter. Initially a part of the 1950s rockabilly scene, Twitty was best known as a country music performer. ...
as Billy Jack Barnes
*
Warren Berlinger
Warren Berlinger (August 31, 1937 – December 2, 2020) was an American character actor, with Broadway runs, movie and television credits, and much work in commercials.
Early life
Warren Berlinger was born in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, o ...
as 'Crip' Hastings
*
Yvette Mimieux
Yvette Carmen Mimieux (January 8, 1942 – January 18, 2022) was an American film and television actress. Her breakout role was in '' The Time Machine'' (1960). She was nominated for three Golden Globe Awards during her acting career.
Early li ...
as Lorinda Nibley
*
Jimmy Boyd
Jimmy Devon Boyd (January 9, 1939 – March 7, 2009) was an American singer, musician, and actor known for his 1952 recording of the song "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus".
Early years
Jimmy Boyd was born in 1939 Mississippi into a musical fam ...
as Bud Starkweather
*
Richard Jaeckel
Richard Hanley Jaeckel (October 10, 1926 – June 14, 1997) was an American actor of film and television. Jaeckel became a well-known character actor in his career, which spanned six decades. He received a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominatio ...
as Hack Marlow
*
Elisha Cook Jr.
Elisha Vanslyck Cook Jr. (December 26, 1903 – May 18, 1995) was an American character actor famed for his work in films noir. According to Bill Georgaris of TSPDT: They Shoot Pictures, Don't They, Cook appeared in a total of 21 film ...
as Harry Nesbit
* Jack Carr as Joe Nibley
*
Christopher Dark
Christopher Dark (born Alfred Francis DeLeo, April 21, 1920 – October 10, 1971) was an American actor. He graduated from Cornell University and did post graduate work at Columbia University. He served as an army medic in the Philippine ...
as Vince Perley
*
Harold Lloyd Jr.
Harold Clayton Lloyd Jr. (January 25, 1931 – June 9, 1971) was an American actor and singer.
Career
The third child and only son of the silent film comedian Harold Lloyd and former actress Mildred Davis, Lloyd made several B-movies in the 1950s ...
as Charlie-Boy Cable
Production
The film was the last made in a six-film deal between producer
Albert Zugsmith
Albert Zugsmith (April 24, 1910 – October 26, 1993) was an American film producer, film director and screenwriter who specialized in low-budget exploitation films through the 1950s and 1960s.
With a background in music promotion (Ted Weems, P ...
and
MGM
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...
.
Reception
According to MGM records the film earned $175,000 in the US and Canada and $150,000 elsewhere, making a loss to the studio of $270,000.
See also
*
List of American films of 1960
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surname)
Organizations
* List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
* SC Germania List, German rugby union ...
References
External links
*
*
{{Albert Zugsmith
1960 films
1960 crime drama films
American black-and-white films
American crime drama films
Films directed by Charles F. Haas
Films set in schools
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films
1960s English-language films
1960s American films