Rock 'n' Roll High School (1979) on Netflix
Vince Lombardi High keeps losing principals to rock 'n' roll, and Riff Randell is its worst offender. She has a song for the Ramones and a ticket Principal Togar takes away.
- Netflix3.8/5
- IMDb6.6/1012,382 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes81%
Trailer
Plot summary
Vince Lombardi High School goes through principals quickly, since its students care more about rock 'n' roll than about classes, and the worst of them is Riff Randell, whose disciplinary file fills a whole cabinet. She is the school's biggest Ramones fan, and she spends three days in line for tickets to a show, hoping to meet Joey Ramone and hand him a song she has written for the band. The school's new principal, Miss Evelyn Togar, hates rock music and promises to end the craze. When she confiscates Riff's ticket, Riff and her best friend Kate Rambeau look for another route to the band, entering a radio contest for a chance to meet them.
Cast
- Daniel Daviesas Fritz Gretel
- Lynn Farrellas Angel Dust
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Rock 'n' Roll High School (1979)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Roger Corman wanted Cheap Trick or Todd Rundgren as the film's band, but neither could fit it into their schedule. Actor Paul Bartel, who appears in the film, suggested the Ramones instead, and while in Los Angeles the band stayed at the Tropicana Motel writing songs for their next album, End of the Century.
- The project began as a story idea from Allan Arkush and Joe Dante under the title Disco High, and passed through the names Heavy Metal Kids and Girl's Gym. Arkush directed most of it, with Dante stepping in whenever exhaustion put Arkush out of action.
- The students' revolt came from real life: the father of the film's original writer, Raymond E. McBride of the Milwaukee Journal, liked to tell the story of the walkout he staged at Central High School in Superior, Wisconsin, in the 1920s.
- The school was the real Mount Carmel High School in South Central Los Angeles, closed down in 1976. The night-time explosions and fires on set were so great that many people were scared away and would not return to the campus for a time.
- Ed Stasium recorded the two main Ramones songs, the title track and "I Want You Around", but Phil Spector remixed them for the soundtrack album. Stasium's original mixes stayed unreleased until the compilations Ramones Mania in 1988 and Hey! Ho! Let's Go: The Anthology in 1999.
