"Central" Focus

This isn't the first time I've said this, but I don't know where I've been when it comes to never having seen today's featured movie. The title Massacre at Central High (1976) is familiar on some level, but I didn't really know anything about it (despite being a lifelong Andrew Stevens fan!) I mean, I was only 9 when it came out, so it's not likely it was going to be something I saw in a theater (though, God knows, my mother dragged me to far worse, several times! Try Death Wish, 1972, Walking Tall, 1973, and The Trial of Billy Jack, 1974, to name a few! Scarring....) I think in my pea brain, I thought this was a movie based upon the shootings at Kent State (I have recollection of a TV-movie being done on that way back when.) Anyway, I finally came upon Massacre right here on Tubi and gave it a whirl. Released in 1976 to near apathy from audiences, it was re-released to better notices in 1980 when both Vincent Canby and Roger Ebert expressed approval. It concerns a group of affluent bullies who run roughshod over all their classmates until someone stands up to them. Unfortunately, the underdogs then begin to take on the form of their former oppressors! This makes the film a bit of a melange of Lord of the Flies (1963) and Death Wish.

Shot completely on various California locations in less than four weeks and for a meager budget, many admire its themes, allegorical plot-line and sociopolitical commentary. Me? I'm here because of the clothing! Ha ha!

Here, we meet the three principal meanies at Central High. Looming Damon Douglas, slick Ray Underwood and muscular Steve Bond. (Behind them in the yellowish shirt with dark vest is the film's protagonist, Derrel Maury.)

Although I like Bond, of the three Underwood is probably the one most my own type. He just reminds me of the sort of unobtainable hunks that could be found in my own suburban high school. A find of Aaron Spellings, he appeared in guest roles on The Rookies and Starsky and Hutch, among other things, through the mid-1980s, but was felled by AIDS at age 39 in 1993

Maury wends his way through the hallways of the school to the student lounge (and what a place that is!) There, he meets up with a buddy from his former school, Andrew Stevens. It isn't spelled out properly in the film, but Maury had rescued Stevens from some bullies at their prior learning institution. Now, Stevens is actually "in" with the bullies here...! 

'Course I was so mesmerized by Stevens' figure-caressing jeans (Underwood's too) that I could barely listen to the dialogue!

Outside, Maury and Stevens begin to reconnect, but it's clear that Maury isn't too keen on the 180-degree change that's come over his old, once-humble pal. 

When I hear anyone today refer to someone wearing "tight jeans" I can only chuckle, knowing how practically painted-on such trousers were back in the 1970s and '80s. 

"Mooseknuckle" Underwood wants to go hang-gliding, but is talked out of it due to how long it would take to prepare all their gear. 

Instead, the guys decide to drive to the beach, then torment a classmate (Steve Sikes) who has the bad luck to run into them along the road. They all proceed to cram into his car with him and trash it. 

Stevens has a girlfriend (Kimberly Beck) who has also caught the eye of Maury at school when he needed directions. Stevens knows that what he's been doing with his pals is wrong, but the pressure to belong, not to mention avoid being on the receiving end of their wrath, is compelling. 

Among Beck's friends at school are Rainbeaux Smith and Lani O'Grady, who many of you will remember from the later Eight is Enough. In fact, Beck played O'Grady's sister Nancy in the show's pilot episode, but was replaced for the series by Dianne Kay. Many of the young performers in Massacre wound up in guest roles on Enough or otherwise worked together in projects.

Dig these gym uniforms! Here, the resident nasties are making life hell for overweight student Jeffrey Winner. (Back then we only had one or two per class, not 15% or more! But we had required PhysEd.) 

One stands alone when it comes to this behavior, signified by the shirt he's wearing.

Afterwards, in one of my favorite sequences, Maury expresses his displeasure during a meetup with Stevens in the boy's locker room. 

Despite his later work in all sorts of straight-to-video sex schlock like Night Eyes and Body Chemisty, among others, Stevens really didn't provide very much nudity in his career. So revealing undie scenes like this are rather delightful. 

Time was, young men showered and changed together without any of that towel dancing that goes on now. Movies like this offer nostalgia for geezers like myself.

Unfortunately, towels could be used for nefarious purposes as well. But at least we get to see Underwood in his clingy gym trunks. (Hey, I only focus on the important things in life around here! Ha ha!)

Needless to say, Bond looks pretty good in his trunks, too. 

Get a load of the bell-bottoms on these trousers! Then there is the crease down the fronts of each leg that you could slice cheese with...! We did dress up more in school than many do now, but I still found it amusing that Bond could just as well be on his way to a disco versus the school's chem lab!

Maury just isn't one to follow the crowd. He's already had one come-to-Jesus with Stevens and now is really beginning to pull away. And Beck is finding herself drawn to the lone wolf, despite her connection to Stevens.

Back in the van, Underwood makes it clear that he wants Stevens to get Maury on board and to begin towing the line as a tyrant if he expects to hang out with them. Throughout, Bond is stroking a phallic rolled-up magazine...! 

At the school swimming pool, we find Bond practicing one of his dives while the others splash around. He orders all of the others OUT of the water (except for his buds.)

Stevens affectionately clings to Maury's ankle as he flounders around.

In the locker room, Maury asks one of the outcasts (Robert Carradine) why he stands for it. Carradine, who'd earlier been harassed for painting a swastika on one of the bully's locker, explains that he prefers to go with the flow and keep a low profile. 

Off-screen, Carradine had auditioned for and wanted Maury's leading role. Child actor Maury, while continuing to perform for decades after, became a sought-after acting coach. He was a regular on the short-lived (and infamous) Joanie Loves Chachi, playing Mario Mastorelli. Others considered for this leading part were Jan-Michael Vincent and Mark Hamill (who was also initially cast in Eight is Enough, but didn't appear in the series.) 

Maury had initially been cast in Sikes part of the picked-upon Ford owner whose car is trashed, but was moved into the lead. Sikes went on to a lengthy career in front of and behind the camera in a wide variety of projects.

More eye-popping flared bell-bottoms as well as some compelling moose-knuckle. 

"A breakfast buffet will be served in the school parking lot at 8:00am"

These goons just can't resist making anyone's life hell, though. Here, they are ganging up on the library assistant, hurling him around and piling hordes of books onto him. At least Bond looks good doing it. 

Maury is really beginning to tire of his nasty classmates' abhorrent behavior and offers to help the hapless victim clean up the mess. 

The reckless brats are hardly done, though. Stevens opts out of their next plan, which is to rape (!) O'Grady and Smith! The fun just never ends. (Incidentally, if I haven't mentioned it, this movie has no "adults" in it at all until 10 minutes before it is over. This is part of the nihilistic setting of a school where bullies reign.) 

Strain is beginning to show in Stevens and Beck's relationship. During a tiff, he intimates that her friends are "partying" with the other guys in his gang, but she's unsure. She goes into the school to check and is stunned by what she witnesses.

The thugs are assaulting her two friends, tearing at their clothing and starting to remove it! Beck tries to intervene, but can only pause the proceedings. 

Fortunately, Maury happens along and is able to open up a can of whoop-ass on the would-be assailants. (Though this scene, and the film in general, is serious in tone, I couldn't help but chuckle when the supposedly innocent Smith strolls out of school with one breast hanging in the breeze, making no attempt to cover it!) 

While she's grateful to Maury for breaking up the rapes, she's also disappointed that he seems every bit as violent as the bullies he is standing up to. (What was he supposed to do?! Hold up a sign that read, "Don't Do That!"...?!)

Now the gang has truly had its fill of Maury. Stevens says he wants to talk to him one last time to convince him to quit thwarting their misdeeds. He leaves his bruised and battered pals in the van and heads down a rocky cliff to find Maury. 

He finds him all right! Unfortunately, he finds him with Beck skinny-dipping in the ocean! (The director of this film was Dutch and as we know from Paul Verhooven, they tend to be rather equal-opportunity in the nudity department, thank God. In this sequence, there are a couple of frontal glimpses of Maury, though I have to say that he is really too sinewy for my own taste. I would need to fatten him up with a long weekend of my high-calorie cooking! LOL)

"From Here to Fraternity?

Wrecked from seeing his girlfriend frolicking nude in the surf with one of his best friends, Stevens returns to the guys and tells them that he spoke to Maury and got nowhere. He can't bring himself to admit that he lost Beck to the new kid. 

Now feeling that they have carte blanche to intimidate Maury without any roadblocks from Stevens, the bullies head to Maury's garage where he is working on the car they trashed earlier. (As an aside, some of the settings - not to mention outfits - in this movie recall those found in 1980s William Higgins gay XXX... the classroom earlier, the van, this garage with the familiar "under the car" position.) 

Enraged that Maury won't emerge from under the car, Underwood kicks his wheeled backboard, causing the cast iron vehicle to drop down on top of his, crushing his leg! 

Check out this array of mid-'70s fashions as the kids discuss Maury's return to school after a rehabilitation period. Also, did high schools really put huge bowls of fruit out on the lunchroom tables...!? 

After a limping Maury makes his way back to school, Underwood grimly thanks him for not involving the authorities in the damaging incident. But Maury may have some other plan in mind... 

In a plan that rather defies description, Maury somehow rigs Underwood's hang-glider so that it fails at the precise moment he's over a live power line! And that's the end of him. 

While sharing their grief, Stevens and Beck reconnect and mark the occasion with some good ol' fashioned sex on the beach! Stevens contorts himself admirably in order to avoid showing anything to the camera, but thanks to a moment or two of shifting, combined with a flicker of light, I do believe that we see some of Andrew's Johnson!

Things also look up (or down, if you're Bond) when Maury intercepts a note meant to inform Bond that he won't be able to practice his diving as usual in the school pool. In another crazed scheme, Maury allows Bond to come to the pool, all ready to dive, but shuts all the lights out before he enters. 

Thus, our Speedo-clad hunk heads up the ladder to do his dive (a somersault, which Bond actually performs) only to have the lights come on, revealing that there is actually NO WATER in the pool! In truth, the whole sound of a pool room is different when the pool is empty, but... as Hitch said to Doris Day once, "It's only a movie..." 

The next morning, students make a grisly discovery at the bottom of the empty structure. As a side note, why in the hell couldn't I have had a high school senior in my class like this hirsute hunk in the lace-up shirt!? Then again, he'd have had to fail about six times to be that age! LOL

Baffled students (the former "nerds") try to figure out what is happening at school with the recent freak "accidents." 

Meanwhile, Douglas and Stevens are well aware that they are the ones being targeted and they begin to freak out, especially Douglas. 

Their answer to everything always seems to be the beach, not that we're complaining. Stevens and Beck are concerned about Douglas' increasing paranoia.

The director, Rene Daalder, really took advantage of the beautiful coastal scenery for his American debut. John Ford couldn't have done it any better! 

Douglas storms off in a tantrum and Beck implores Stevens to follow him so that he isn't alone. 

Douglas peels out of his surfing wet-suit jacket, ever worried about what danger may be lurking. 

And he's right to be concerned!

With the three worst bullies out of the way, the school campus is free and fun. Kids play Frisbee, Winner gleans support from his fellow students in gym and Maury is now the one who can wear painted on bell-bottoms to school. 

Unfortunately, the old adage "Give him an inch and he'll take a mile" proves true when now the once-bullied students begin to assert their own largess over the weaker ones. Here Winner shoves wimpy student Tom Logan down the stairs just for the fun of it... (Logan, who sports the most hideous hairdo, went on to many stage performances and a lengthy career behind the camera.) 

The deaths are far from over, too, as now the once put-upon library assistant is felled, followed by others! Carradine exits the scene in still more super-snug pants.

Now panic hits the school and the students race out, though Stevens seems resigned to the fact that there's nothing to be done. 

Carradine just wants out of dodge, fearing he may be next on the chopping block. He and O'Grady, along with Smith, decide to go camping. (In case it escaped your notice, he junk is camping prominently in these hyper-revealing pants!) 

On their little camping tryst, he rocks the world's craziest shorts (I mean, Chuck Heston wore more in The Planet of the Apes, 1968!) And somehow, the two virgins are now trotting around nude or semi-nude and engaging in group sex. That's progress! 

In the film's finale, we find a student alumni dance where at last we set our eyes on some older people. 

This dance goes on, even though multiple students have recently been offed...! 

Even Beck and Stevens show up, with her wearing her best Little House on the Prairie-chic get-up. The whole thing winds up in an explosive finale. 

Although Massacre has many loyal fans who admire its allegorical structure and symbolic presentation of social politics, I can recommend it on another level - as demonstrated here - for the visuals it provides! Considering the careers that some of these performers went on to enjoy, the makers really had an eye for committed young talent. In an unfortunate twist, the director Daalder had composed music for the movie which he greatly loved (so did leading actor Maury), but because he didn't have it "charted," he was prevented from using it! So other music (including a theme song penned by Beck's stepfather) was utilized, causing Daalder to refuse to watch his own film for many years after. 

The End!

::: BONUS PICS :::

 

If you thought I was going to just drift away from this movie without a little bit more of Steve Bond, then you must be new to these here parts!

Bond, whose real name was - wait for it - Schlomo Goldberg (!) got started early, appearing alongside the glorious Mike Henry in 1968's Tarzan and the Jungle Boy. 

So right out of the gate, he was a physically fit young person with a golden idol to admire as a role model. (Needless to say, he was also used to wearing brief attire thanks to this.) 

Bond's greatest fame arrived when he joined the cast of General Hospital and became an object of desire for soap fans everywhere. A sexy poster in a cowboy hat with his jeans unbuttoned helped to seal the deal. 

Prior to the early-1980s, male soap stars tended to be successful older men, buttoned up in suits, but this all gave way to beefcake, beefcake, beefcake!

Bond, tightly packed into a 5'9" frame - at most, made it a mission to perfect his physique. 

Said physique was on full display at daytime TV industry events such as this one. 

A super-lean, chiseled and greased-up Bond became a fixture in various bodybuilding and fitness magazines. 

The 1988 low-budget action flick Picasso Trigger utilized the assets belonging to its leading man as well. 

Sorry, ladies, he's taken. Bond has been wed to the equally athletic and fit Cindy since 1982. Their daughter successfully pursued an equestrienne interest as a show jumper and trainer. 

Known for his steely-blue eyes and his rippled figure, Bond made quite the impression in his hey-day. Just prior to Massacre, he did a complete spread in Playgirl magazine which, while eye-popping to say the least, came and went in 1975, but was unearthed once more when his star rose later. These pics are worth searching for (and come up easily) on the Internet. 

Now, The End!