The Trouble Maker (1959)

★★★★★ · The Talented Mr. Stone · Spuzz · 2005-08-11

Astonishing film about the oldest looking high school students in recent memory, and a kid who tries to infiltrate their group, supposedly to start trouble, but I spot this HUGE hidden gay subtext in all of this. Mel Stone starts spreading rumors for some odd reason about the girlfriend of the school's jock, Dean. He also spreads lies about a test, how Dean should play football, and also tries to circulate a nasty rumor about Dean and another teammate of his. This all climaxes during the school dance.. Will Mel tell his big secret? I dunno, my interpretation was that Mel was HOT for Dean, and…

★★★★ · The original playah hatah · dynayellow · 2003-09-04

Skulking about the shadows of Generic High School there is a cancer... Mel, the class troublemaker. Spreading rumors, half-truths and outrights lies, Mel tries to make himself popular at the expense of others, and can't understand why the others regard him like toe fungus. Particularly funny is the scene where Mel tells Dean, the star quarterback, how much he admires him, which comes off as a big, big crush. Ends, of course, with the classic Centron question mark. The kid who plays Mel seems familiar. Anyone know his name?

★★★★ · Couldn't Come Up With Another Plot? · JayKay49 · 2012-08-25

Troublemakers are not that rare but the circumstance used in this film is pretty off the wall. Actually pretty far fetched when you think about it. Which does beg the question: "Why?" "What is the REAL purpose, here?" At first I did not detect, in the script at least, the homosexual innuendo that another reviewer mentioned. But when you consider that Mel's character is played by what would ordinarily be used to play a homosexual in a film made in that era; characteristically, an octaroon; the puffy eyes and the strange hairdo are also part of it. And...they do show him tooling around in his…

★★★ · Mel Stone... · Hawkwind-1 · 2021-05-25

The actor playing Mel Stone looks like Philadelphia DJ "Jerry Blavat"...

★★★ · The Ladder Awaits Mel · Dr-Pretorious · 2022-02-25

lying..agitating..pitting one against another..circulating rumours....Melvin has all of the reprehensible characteristics to one day be a popular, successful, noteworthy, real, major player/achiever.