I was thinking of back to school movies and I thought of one movie and started looking at the wondrously, tacky Mamie Van Doren who, back in the 50s was the poor man’s (very poor), Monroe. This chickybird is still alive at 93 although, I bet, her boobs are, now, much younger than she is. I found out she was in more than one movie about school…who’d a thunk!
1. HIGH SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL-1958
In all the films I am going to talk about, I am amazed at the amount of stars that are part of it, no matter how much they wanted to deny it…except for Mamie Van Doren. This film stars Russ Tamblyn ( who does no backflips in this flick) as an undercover cop going to a high school to find out who is distributing drugs to the youth. While there, he notices that a young Mamie ( well, she must have flunked out since the 1940s) smokes…..marijuana! You wonder if “21 Jump Street” got the idea from this movie. There are some fun faces in this movie like Jackie Coogan ( Uncle Fester from The Adams Family and a famous silent film child actor) to Michael Landon of “Bonanza” and “Little house on the Prairie” fame. It’s dumb but fun. Jerry Lee Lewis introduces the film with a good ole rock and roll song.
2. GIRLS TOWN-1959
Nothing like seeing Mel Torme as the head of a biker gang wearing a leather jacket…hahahahaaa..I can’t…he looks like a mild mannered accountant. So, there is a jerk who falls to his death and the wrong girl is blamed. Why any girl would be blamed is beyond me because he was trying to rape her but, it is the 1950s. Anyways, Mamie, playing a 16 yr old (enter the laugh track) is a bad chickeybird who is sent to reform school run by nuns. Will they be able to teach her anything? Do we care? Again, a bad film that is so good especially with the music from Paul Anka and The Platters.
3. SEX KITTENS GO TO COLLEGE-1960
Oh…this is so bad it’s good. I mean…yes, it’s bad with Mamie as a Professor who knows many languages and can teach science…of course but has a stripper past. You have a robot who can guess the future and an idiot who wants to steal the robot from the school. John Carradine plays an older professor with Jackie Coogan and Vampira in the cast. Conway Twitty played himself and to his dying day, he hated that he was in this grade Z movie. Tuesday Weld was in this movie and became good friends with Mamie. You know, they could have been just teachers but it doesn’t matter. Yes, this is bad but it’s fun and how can you not love the title.
What teacher movies can you think of and, have you seen any of these Mamie movies? You know I almost went with “Teacher’s Pet” with Doris Day as a teacher, in night school, for journalism and Clark Gable as an old timer reporter who thinks her teaching sucks. Mamie has a small part as his girlfriend. I almost went with this movie but…it’s a good movie and just doesn’t fit my theme within a theme within a theme aka school movies with Mamie that are bad.
Hi, Birgit!
ReplyDeleteThanks for shining the spotlight on one of the "3 M's" - Mamie Van Doren. Yesterday, in my comment on your 4M song post, I was all set to write Mamie's name in reference to High School Confidential because I have known for decades that she was the bombshell star, but for some reason I wound up writing the name of another "M" - Jayne Mansfield. Perhaps I was not fully awake at the time. Sorry!
In the first trailer, we are treated to the familiar voice of Art Gilmore, the popular announcer who narrated countless movie trailers, TV series, radio commercials, documentaries, kiddie records, etc. Art's v/o work was largely responsible for inspiring me to pursue a career along the same lines. In that trailer, we also see the type of juvenile delinquents that used to shock and frighten us. Those teen brats from Central Casting seem like well behaved Wally Cleavers compared to the adolescent classroom killers that plague today's society. We also get a glimpse of former silent film child actor Jackie Coogan before he became famous to a new generation as Uncle Fester on The Addams Family.
Regarding Girls Town, we are once again treated to the rich voice of Art Gilmore on the trailer delivering bold, provocative lines like "Youth racing down the road to nowhere!" Goitta hand it to the writers and editors of those teensploitation trailers. They knew how to pump up the excitement and get the audience stoked to see the film. Musical guests Paul Anka and The Platters remind us that rock & roll performers, even those who sang mellow songs and smooth ballads, were commonly linked to and juxtaposed with hubcap stealing pugilistic punks, hot rod racing, underage whoopee and other verboten behaviors.
If elected, I, Shady Del Knight, pledge to make sure that all Sex Kittens Go To College, and that no sex kitten is left behind. I guarantee that I admired Mamie's professor character for her brains. This flick is loaded with famous faces. Jackie Coogan is back along with "it girl" Tuesday Weld, Marty "Adam-12" Milner, Vampira, horror actor John Carradine and Louis Nye, the comedian I loved watching as a regular on The Steve Allen Show playing the character Gordon Hathaway in the Man On The Street sketch. Singer Conway Twitty, whose early recordings imitated the Elvis Presley sound, is also in the cast. I never watched this movie but, after watching the trailer and reading your review, it's must see for me.
I'll pick four very well known teacher films: To Sir With Love starring Sidney Poitier, Jerry Lewis as The Nutty Professor, Blackboard Jungle starring Glenn Ford and Because They're Young starring Dick Clark.
I'm up and running with a new post today and hope you can swing by and check it out. Stay safe and well, dear friend BB, and enjoy the rest of September with your hubby and my animal pals Harley and Lexi!
Ha! I just reread my comment from yesterday and realized that I correctly identified Jayne Mansfield as the bombshell star of The Girl Can't Help It (1956). So, I apologized needlessly. Turns out, I am sleepier today than I was yesterday. :)
DeleteMel Torme! Didn't know he acted as well as sang.
ReplyDeleteHaven't seen any of these movies but my first thought was The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. She's about as far from Mamie as you can get.
ReplyDeleteNot familiar with these 3 but I do remember Teacher's Pet and thought it was a fun movie. YOU, have a great one:)
ReplyDeleteSandra sandracox.blogspot.com
Mamie sure was a character! I'm surprised she's still alive, but loved your line about her boobs being younger. ☺ I haven't seen these, and the first movie about a teacher that came to mind was "To Sir With Love', starring Sidney Poitier and Lulu, the English singer who was once married to Maurice Gibb of the Bee Gees.
ReplyDeleteGood film suggestion, but Lulu is Scottish!
DeleteNo, I can't say I've seen any of her films. I'll have to keep an eye out. For when I'm in the mood for a bad movie. If we're talking teacher movies, I again pull out Summer School with Mark Harmon. I'm all for the poking fun at teachers... Wait, wasn't there a movie called Teachers in the '80s? I vaguely recall that one.
ReplyDeleteI laughed at "very poor man's" Monroe. I can't say I've seen any of her films though.
ReplyDeleteIf I haven't seen any of these films (I'm sure I have), then I know I've seen other Van Doren films. She never made much of an impact with me other than I know her name.
ReplyDeleteLee
Hi Birgit!
ReplyDeleteI have seen these three piece of cinematic hokum with Mamie and her bullet bra ever present and front and center!!
None are very good at all but I had the most fun with Girls Town which was just such a pure distillation of this type of drive-in exploitation flick from the crazy, jazzy opening number to the very end.
The cast of all three are shockingly stacked with notable names but with the dual meeting of people on the way up (Russ Tamblyn & such) with others if not on their way down than no longer at the top (Jan Sterling, Jackie Coogan etc.) it makes for some interesting confluence. Perhaps the most surprising in any of them is Tuesday Weld, though if you look at her early career it is studded with "gems" along the same line as "Sex Kittens" ("Rock, Rock, Rock" and "The Private Lives of Adam & Eve" among them). She of course could have been a huge star had she chosen, the list of roles she was offered and turned down because she didn't want to become too famous is dizzying (Bonnie & Clyde, Lolita, Cactus Flower, The Graduate, Rosemary's Baby, Norma Rae and True Grit among them!)
So not only have I seen your three picks but I've also several other selections from Mamie's rather niche output:
Running Wild (1955)
Untamed Youth (1957)
Born Reckless (1958)
The Beat Generation (1959)
College Confidential (1960)
3 Nuts in Search of a Bolt (1964)
And I'm sure there are others though I'm not sure she was a "student" in any of the them. :-)
To say she was a poor man's Marilyn Monroe, even a very poor man, is probably giving her more status than she had at the time. I'm thinking a poor man's Jayne Mansfield is closer the mark and since Jayne was at least one or more steps below Marilyn's position (I think the only one with anywhere near the same parity as MM was Kim Novak). She certainly has thrown her dignity to the winds if that last picture is any indicator!!
93. Good on Mamie. We just lost an icon with the passing of James Earl Jones, didn't we?
ReplyDeleteSandra sandracox.blogspot.com
I'm not very familiar with Mamie, but this was an interesting read!
ReplyDelete