College Confidential (film)

College Confidential is a 1960 American B-movie drama directed by Albert Zugsmith[1] and starring Steve Allen, Jayne Meadows and Mamie Van Doren.[2][3]

College Confidential
Directed byAlbert Zugsmith
Written byIrving Shulman
Albert Zugsmith
Produced byAlbert Zugsmith
StarringSteve Allen
Mamie Van Doren
Jayne Meadows
Herbert Marshall
CinematographyCarl E. Guthrie
Edited byEdward Curtiss
Music byDean Elliott
Distributed byUniversal-International
Release date
  • August 20, 1960 (1960-08-20)
Running time
92 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Plot

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Sociology professor Steve McInter conducts a survey at Collins College about the lifestyles and sexual urges of the younger generation.[4] The father of one of his students, Sally Blake, confronts McInter about the survey and found that he was having an affair with a female student. Reporter Betty Duquesne receives an anonymous tip that McInter is corrupting the college students. McInter has a party at his house where a student film that had been spliced with a supposedly "pornographic" movie was shown. The professor is arrested and a trial was held where he is charged with corrupting the morals of minors, which attracted the attention of the media. After the trial, McInter attacked the "dirty-mindedness" of the town.[5]

Cast

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Production

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The film was an unofficial follow-up to High School Confidential from two years prior, although made for a different studio. Director Joe Dante, who spoofed said follow-up on the 1979 Ramones vehicle Rock 'n' Roll High School,[6] asked Allen about making College Confidential at one point and the latter said that it was going to be progressive. It has never been available on any home media.[7][8]

Randy Sparks performed two songs on the film: "College Confidential" and "Playmates", while Conway Twitty performed "College Confidential Ball".[5]

Reception

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Howard Thompson of The New York Times thought the picture "best-described as punk", and wrote that "Steve Allen and Jayne Meadows are such personable, alert performers that it is truly painful to find them co-starring in a piece of movie claptrap like College Confidential." The students in the film were described as seemingly "even more adolescent, apparently never touch a book, continually grasp each other instead, or slither around mouthing a kind of steamy, beatnik jargon.".[2] The New York Herald Tribune said of the acting: "Earl Wilson and other members of the fourth estate show up in court to demonstrate their shortcomings as actors..."[9]

References

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  1. ^ MUBI
  2. ^ a b Thompson, Howard (August 22, 1960). "Screen: Campus Claptrap: Steve Allen and Wife in 'College Confidential'". The New York Times.
  3. ^ "College Confidential (1960)". BFI. Archived from the original on May 4, 2019.
  4. ^ AllMovie
  5. ^ a b Lowe, Barry (2016). Atomic Blonde: The Films of Mamie Van Doren. McFarland. pp. 157–160. ISBN 9780786482733.
  6. ^ Laderman, David (2010). Punk Slash! Musicals. University of Texas Press. p. 93. ISBN 9780292721708 – via Google Books.
  7. ^ "College Confidential (1960)". Turner Classic Movies.
  8. ^ "College Confidential". Trailers from Hell.
  9. ^ Lowe, Barry (2016). Atomic Blonde: The Films of Mamie Van Doren. McFarland. p. 160. ISBN 9780786482733.
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