DIARY OF A HIGH SCHOOL BRIDE (1959)

On a desert road on the way to Los Angeles, a young couple is stopped for speeding. Steve, a law student, is calm and collected but Judy, clutching a teddy bear, is almost hysterical. It turns out that they are returning home after having a Las Vegas wedding, and, as she's 17 and still in high school, she's nervous about how her parents will take the news. The cop lets them go with a warning, but at home, her mother insists that they get an annulment. Her father wants to let her juggle school and married life, and maybe learn firsthand what she's gotten into. Steve can't wait to hit the sack with his new wife, but as Judy is a nervous virgin, Steve first takes her to the beatnik coffeehouse where he tries to calm her down, but while there she runs into her ex-boyfriend Chuck, son of a studio boss, who, even though he seems to have another girlfriend, is unreasonably jealous. Back at Steve's apartment, the first conjugal experience goes well enough, but soon Judy realizes, like her father hoped, how hard it is to balance school and marriage, especially when Steve doesn't seem inclined to help out in shopping, cooking or cleaning at all. The two travel a rocky road, not helped by her parents, until Chuck starts making trouble, at school and at Judy's home. One night, Chuck lures Judy to an empty soundstage at his dad's studio with the promise of a reconciliation, but instead he tries to assault her. Will Steve be her white knight, arriving in time to stop the attack?

Like HIGH SCHOOL HELLCATS, this is another American International teen appeal movie. It more or less masquerades as a social problem film--teen marriage, pro or con?--but with an ending very similar to that of HELLCATS, it becomes a thriller, in this case with a potential rapist character taking center stage. Up to that point, it's a rather boring melodrama filled with lackluster characters and actors. Anita Sands (Judy) never made another movie, though she did go on to appear in TV shows of the early 1960s. Ron Foster (Steve) had a much longer career, but neither one looks their character's age--Foster was almost 30 and Sands looks more like a college student than a high school student. Neither one is particularly appealing in looks or character, which leaves Chris Robinson (Chuck, pictured) as the standout, and he is very good as the creepy ex, and even looks roughly age-appropriate (he was 20 when he shot the film). It's fun to see one minor character, a friend of Chuck's, always plugged into his transistor radio in anticipation of today's earbud mania. OK as a novelty movie, but never as fun or titillating as its title promises. [TCM]