Mickey Rooney was always short and baby-faced: in a picture of him from many years back, he was dancing with Alice Ford who was about a foot taller than he. But in this particular movie this baby-faced man was strong and up front, and even sometimes awe-inspiring, surprisingly enough.
The title receives its name from it being a very expensive military school for incorrigible delinquents.
The story centers around Steve Conway (Rooney),a very wealthy construction engineer, going to the school on Sabre island to learn how his son was killed four months after he learned about that; he had never known his son since his wife had divorced him and Conway had no visiting rights; still, he wants to learn how it happened. The school's head is the cold, dishonest Major Redfern Kelly ( a part perfect for Dan Duryea) a married man who is conducting an affair with the trashy secretary Jennie Evans' played by Terry Moore. The one who knows about how he was killed is the young Conway's ex-roommate Chip Hastings, (Warren Berlinger) a scared and lonely young orphan who is beaten and pummeled more than once because the cadets who beat him believe he shared with Steve Conway the truth about how the young Conway was killed. Despite three ways of trying to scare Conway off the island, ways which had no effect, even Major Kelly believes that Conway has to never leave the island.
Rooney practically never smiles, and handles well two ex-marines larger than he; it is after the altercation with the marines that Conway mentions that he was once a marine himself. Truly, the major does believe than this man is no force to be reckoned with.
In this movie Rooney is a tough ex-marine but is very caring toward the lonely Chip Hastings. The movie itself is now a favorite of mine.
The title receives its name from it being a very expensive military school for incorrigible delinquents.
The story centers around Steve Conway (Rooney),a very wealthy construction engineer, going to the school on Sabre island to learn how his son was killed four months after he learned about that; he had never known his son since his wife had divorced him and Conway had no visiting rights; still, he wants to learn how it happened. The school's head is the cold, dishonest Major Redfern Kelly ( a part perfect for Dan Duryea) a married man who is conducting an affair with the trashy secretary Jennie Evans' played by Terry Moore. The one who knows about how he was killed is the young Conway's ex-roommate Chip Hastings, (Warren Berlinger) a scared and lonely young orphan who is beaten and pummeled more than once because the cadets who beat him believe he shared with Steve Conway the truth about how the young Conway was killed. Despite three ways of trying to scare Conway off the island, ways which had no effect, even Major Kelly believes that Conway has to never leave the island.
Rooney practically never smiles, and handles well two ex-marines larger than he; it is after the altercation with the marines that Conway mentions that he was once a marine himself. Truly, the major does believe than this man is no force to be reckoned with.
In this movie Rooney is a tough ex-marine but is very caring toward the lonely Chip Hastings. The movie itself is now a favorite of mine.