Main Cast: P.J. Soles, Vincent Van Patten, Clint Howard, Dey Young, Mary Woronov
Release Year: 1979
Country: US
Run Time: 94 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
Rock 'n' Roll High School is a prime example of a 1970s movie phenomenon: a cult film that was deliberately designed to be a cult film. High-schooler Riff Randell's (P.J. Soles) efforts to meet the Ramones are continually thwarted by rock & roll-hating principal Evelyn Togar (Mary Woronov). Ms. Togar is the zealous sort who conducts experiments on laboratory rats to prove the adverse effect of rock music on innocent teenagers. Riff knows that she'll have to be twice as clever and devious as Togar to get her daily supply of Ramones -- and thereby hangs our tale. A secondary plot involves the efforts of pimply student Eaglebauer (Clint Howard) to arrange a date with the very particular Riff. A deliciously anarchistic climax caps this never-a-dull-moment spoof of 1950s rock & roll musicals. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Joe Dante co-wrote this funny, exuberant youth picture about a teenager named Riff Randell (Halloween's P.J. Soles) who is a huge fan of the Ramones and leads a rebellion against her school's uptight, anti-rock-music principal Togar (Mary Woronov in the role of her career). There are many odd touches in this delightful cult film, not the least of which is a giant delinquent mouse who went to seed after listening to loud music. Beyond the funny script and engaging cast, there is of course an incredible soundtrack, featuring all the Ramones songs that most people of a certain age know better than their algebra. Whether you like the Ramones or not, this picture is still a lot of fun and one of the most enjoyable musicals of its time. The "Corman Classics" videotape contains an interview in which producer Roger Corman reveals that the film was originally conceived as Disco High until director Allan Arkush fortunately convinced him that using rock & roll was a better idea. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
Paul Bartel - Mr. McGree; Loren Lester - Fritz Hansel; Daniel Davies - Fritz Gretel; Alix Elias - Coach Steroid; Don Steele - Screamin' Steve Stevens; Lynn Farrell - Angel Dust; Herb Braha - Manager; Michael Goodwin - Chemistry Teacher; John Hateley; Dick Miller - Police Chief Klein; Dee Dee Ramone - Himself; Joey Ramone - Himself; Johnny Ramone - Himself; Marky Ramone - Himself; Grady Sutton - School Board President; Barbara Walters - Cafeteria Lady; Jack Gill; Debbie Evans
Credit
Marie Kordus - Art Director, Siana Lee Hall - Choreography, Jack Buehler - Costume Designer, Gerald T. Olson - First Assistant Director, Allan Arkush - Director, Larry Bock - Editor, Gail Werbin - Editor, Roger Corman - Executive Producer, The Ramones - Composer (Music Score), Dean Cundey - Cinematographer, Roger Corman - Producer, Michael Finnell - Producer, Linda Pearl - Set Designer, Allan Arkush - Screen Story, Joe Dante - Screen Story, Joe Dante - Screenwriter, Richard Whitley - Screenwriter, Russ Dvonch - Screenwriter, Joseph McBride - Screenwriter
Set in 1980, Vince Lombardi High School keeps losing principals to nervous breakdowns because of the students' love of rock 'n' roll and their disregard of education. Their leader, Riff Randall (P.J. Soles), is the biggest Ramones fan at Vince Lombardi High School. She waits in line for three days to get tickets to see the band, hoping to meet Joey Ramone so she can give him a song she wrote for the band, "Rock N' Roll High School."
When Principal Togar (Mary Woronov) takes her ticket away, Riff and her best friend Kate Rambeau (Dey Young) have to find another way to meet their heroes—by winning a radio contest. When Miss Togar and a group of parents attempt to burn a pile of rock records, the students take over the high school, joined by the Ramones, who are made honorary students. When the police are summoned and demand that the students evacuate the building, they do so, which leads to a quite literal explosive finale.[1]
Executive Producer Corman wanted a latter-day version of his wild-teen films of the 1950s and 1960s, and he felt that the best way to adapt to the 1970s would be to center the plot on the popular music of the day. The production Disco High began, based upon a story by Allan Arkush and Joe Dante. In September of 1977 Richard Whitley and Russ Dvonch, both fresh out of film school, went to Corman's offices, hoping to find work. As luck would have it, Arkush and Dante happened to be in the lobby and were nice enough to look at their student films. They liked their films enough to give them the script, then called "Girl's Gym" by Joseph McBride. Whitley and Dvonch were told to take any section and rewrite it as a test. Whitley and Dvonch passed the test and were hired to write the screenplay which became Rock 'n' Roll High School.[2]
Arkush, who would go on to direct the film, tells all about the film's evolution on the Buena Vista DVD's commentary track, along with Whitley and producer Michael Finnell. The trio tries to maintain an anecdotal train of thought, but they tend to get distracted when certain elements pop up on the screen. This makes for an interruption in their stories, but it also tends to bring light to otherwise obscure trivia. For example, one of the film's more memorable sequences, the "paper plane" scene, was partially directed by the Zucker Brothers, who would go on to direct, of all things, Airplane! (1980). It also reveals that Dante, who helped write the story, got the chance to direct a few of the film's sequences while Arkush was out of commission with exhaustion.
The genesis for the plot was a favorite story told to the film's original writer by his father, Raymond E. McBride of the Milwaukee Journal, who staged a walkout from his Superior (Wis.) Central High school in the 1920s. Rock 'n' Roll High School did so well that Arkush and Whitley followed it up with a sequel, Rock 'n' Roll High School Forever (1991).
On July 31, 2008, it was announced that actor/writer Alex Winter had been hired to script a remake of the film for Howard Stern's production company.[3]
