POSTERS: Three O’Clock High

The 1980s were abundant with teenager based films. From geeky coming of age stories to bloody slasher films to raunchy sex comedies you had plenty to pick from. One of my top favorites from that decade is Phil Joanou‘s Three O’Clock High (1987). In the movie, a nerdy do gooder high school student named Jerry Mitchell (Casey Siemaszko) is assigned to interview the new kid, who just happens to be the infamous Frankenstein-like super bully Buddy Revell (Richard Tyson). Now when Jerry introduces himself to Buddy, he chooses to do it at the bathroom urinal. This is his first mistake. His second mistake is badgering Buddy into a confrontation, BUT when Jerry touches Buddy, its all over for him. Buddy seriously HATES to be touched or grabbed. He proceeds to tell Jerry they will be fighting each other at three o’clock and he must show up or else. The rest of the film has Jerry doing whatever he can think of to try to get out of the battle and is quite simply a riot to watch. The movie is a High Noon style comedic potboiler leading up to the big fight.

This furious poster shows a puppet-like Jerry being held by Buddy’s giant hand as it bursts out of a clock. It’s really a perfect humorous image conveying the theme of the story.