Dark Force Entertainment Looks To Dec. 15 For The Blu-ray Double-Bill Of Hollywood High And Teenage Mother

Dark Force Entertainment, with sales and distribution expertise provided by MVD Entertainment Group, has tabbed Dec. 15 as the Blu-ray release for the latest installment in its popular “Drive-In Double Feature” series.

 

Getting the retro treatment, with new film transfers from the only known surviving 35mm prints (with “extensive scene by scene color correction,” we might add) is the exploitative double bill of director Patrick Wright’s 1977 teenage classic, Hollywood High and the Jerry Gross produced, written by and directed by 1967 sleaze-gem, Teenage Mother.

 

Hollywood High, features the sex-tease shenanigans of four Hollywood High School co-eds by the names of Jan (Susanne Severeid, in her film debut … she would continue her career with the likes of Van Nuys Blvd., Don’t Answer the Phone, Howling IV: The Original Nightmare, etc.), Candy (Sherry Hardin) Monica (Rae Sperling) and Bebe (Marcy Albrecht), who drive around, go to the beach, smoke some grass and attend class on occasion.

 

Oh yes, and they have boyfriends, including “The Fenz” (Kevin Mead), who can’t seem to “score” with these hot young things, but they do manage to tag along when the girls are invited over to the mansion of Hollywood High alumnus — a former “silent era” movie star by the name of June East (Marla Winters) — who schools the “boys” in the art of seduction … and proceeds to take advantage of each of them!! 

 

There are running jokes, plenty of “money” shots (involving topless young women), a lot of double-entendre snippets of dialogue and a twist ending involving Hy Pyke (The First Nudie Musical, Blade Runner, Nightmare in Blood, etc.) that perfectly wraps things up.

 

Teamed with Hollywood High is a film that came before I Drink Your Blood, I Eat Your Skin and Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, all of which were soon-to-be indie hits from producer, showman and film distributer Jerry Gross.   This is his 1967 exploitation flick, Teenage Mother.

 

Shot on a dime, using non-union talent — and as legend has it, he filmed in remote locations to avoid run-ins with the Screen Actors Guild — Teenage Mother is basically a shakedown story about a high school girl named Arlene who feigns being pregnant to entrap her boyfriend.   

 

“Arlene” is played by Arlene Farber, who would remain close friends with Jerry Gross until his death in 2002 … she also starred in other Jerry Gross films, including Girl on a Chain Gang, I Drink Your Blood and Female Animal (and was Angie in The French Connection).

 

A new teacher has arrived from Sweden, Miss Peterson (Julie Ange), who teaches sex-ed classes, and when Arlene pulls her stunt, Peterson is blamed for getting the “poor” girl pregnant.   

 

Now Jerry Gross realized at some point that he was going to need a “hook” to market this film and he came up with a doozy.   He found footage of an actual woman giving birth to a child and inserted the footage into the film as part of Miss Peterson’s sex-ed class.   He bicycled what few prints he had around the country … Teenage Mother played for a solid year!!