High School Big Shot (1959)

Marv (Tom Pittman) is a high school teenager who the whole world really is against in this low-budget, angst-ridden film with a decidedly noir feel. Ostracized at school by the cool kids, his ineffectual alcoholic dad (Malcolm Atterbury) makes Marv's home life difficult as well. One day the bookish Marv is shocked by a new turn of events, when the prettiest girl in town, Betty (Virginia Aldridge), sticks up for him against her loutish boyfriend Vince. But Betty, in classic femme fatale mode, has her own motives for agreeing to go out with Marv--she needs him to write her English paper for her so she can go to college and marry Vince. Unfortunately, their scam is apprehended, and Marv loses his scholarship. Betty still has him under her spell, however, and in order to keep "his girl" in furs Marv enters a life of crime with disastrous results. This dark, bleak film is a surprisingly cogent and poignant tale that manages to avoid the many pitfalls of the "troubled teen" genre.