The rash of Albert Zugmsith films that followed at MGM in the wake of High School Confidential often had good ideas and interesting casts but tended to lack the care that could have made them special. This one has a terrific exploitation concept – a dad arrives at a military academy to investigate the death of his son. Said academy is located on an island surrounded by sharks and is run for trouble-making children, a ripe exploitation storyline if there was one.
But the filmmakers do very little with it. The death was mysterious, there’s bullying going on. Ho-hum. There’s no real sense of creepiness or unease or storyline apart from the dad asking questions and people taking pot shots at him. This is a film ripe for remake.
The other key flaw of the film is the casting of the father. Mickey Rooney is an actor of tremendous talent and energy and his performance here is accomplished and professional – but at the end of the day he’s still Mickey Rooney, and its no fun to see Mickey Rooney playing a hard-arse (particularly an ex-Marine capable of beating up other marines). It’s not his height, I would have bought Jimmy Cagney in this role, its his Mickey Rooney factor; they should have rewritten the part more to accommodate him.
Mamie Van Doren’s absence is felt, though Terry Moore tries her best in a Mamie Van Doren-like part she isn’t as good. Yvette Mimieux appears in her first role I believe; a thankless part in which she just rocks up to wear an (admittedly pleasing) bikini, and then to nearly get raped.
Oh, the bullying cadets are a bit vanilla, too, especially the blonde leader, and the music soundtrack a bit jarring.
To take a walk on the positive side, the acting is of strong standard (Dan Duryea plays head of the school, Elisha Cook Jnr is in there too) and the action sequences are well done and the film is done with some conviction. Like a lot of these Zugsmith films the son of a famous actor is in the cast, in this case Harold Lloyd Jnr.
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