After achieving teen fame as a bad boy in Dragstrip Girl, John Ashley was given an even nastier role in this JD film, in which he plays the title role. He rules the school, beating up kids for protection money, selling stolen teats to classmates and rigging the election for president. Of course it’s not all his fault – his rich parents have left him in the care of servants while they travel (there’s even a scene where Ashley sobs in bed over this – gee, he isn’t all bad…). However he still slaps a woman across the face and later basically tries to rape another one.
It has the novelty appeal of films made in this era: Ashley in a leather jacket, high school dances, souped-up cars with fluffy dice, girls with pointy boobs. Ashely gives an effective performance and I really liked that enigmatic doll faced girl who is his love interest.
The plot has definite parallels with Dragstrip Girl – Ashley has a rivalry with a clean cut kid and kills someone in a road accident which sets up the third act – only the person he kills here is said clean cut kid. But it’s a better film, with a more interesting central character, better acting and car racing scenes; there’s also an effective wind-swept finale where Ashley is left all alone waiting for the police to come. Still, it was probably too late in the JD cycle to be a big success – Ashley spent the next few years in TV before emerging as a second lead in the Beach Party movies. (NB This isn’t an AIP film although it was distributed by Roger Corman’s Filmgroup.)
No comments:
Post a Comment