Police Lieutenant Lacey, with aid from Coach Bettger, heads a crack-down on dope-peddling to high-school athletes. One kid dies from an overdose, two more kill a gas station attendant in an aborted hold-up attempt to get money to buy dope, and a third dies in a fall in a condemned empty building while fleeing from the law. With the aid of some outraged students, the dope pusher is brought to justice.
Acting
Paul Kelly's Lieutenant Lacey: grizzled sincerity in absurd circumstances.
Production
Shot in 10 days on a shoestring, every frame screams cheap urgency.
Director
Alexander J. Wells
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Part of a 1950s exploitation wave where independent producers cashed in on parental fears about juvenile delinquency, often screening in grindhouses as 'educational' fare.
Director Alexander J. Wells made three nearly identical anti-drug films in two years; this was the only one where Paul Kelly returned as the same character, making Lacey cinema's forgotten franchise cop.
US
