High School Girl: A Dusty Look at Teenage Rebellion

Is it worth the watch?

Honestly, you probably only need to watch High School Girl if you have a thing for pre-code era melodramas or if you just really like staring at old classroom sets. If you’re looking for a breezy Saturday night flick, stay away. It’s a bit of a slog. But if you’re a fan of the kind of stilted, earnest acting that defined the 30s, you might get a kick out of how serious everyone is about biology.

The whole premise hinges on a teacher who actually cares, which is a nice change of pace from the usual cold-hearted authority figures of that time. Helen MacKellar does the heavy lifting here, trying to keep a straight face while dealing with teenagers who act like they’re already in their mid-forties.

Oddly specific observations

• The classroom lighting is weirdly bright, almost like they were filming in a dentist's office.
• The way these kids hold their books—nobody holds books like that anymore, right?
• I spent way too much time looking at the background wallpaper in the dining room scene.

There’s this one moment where the father is yelling, and he just keeps pacing back and forth until I thought he might actually wear a hole in the rug. It’s painfully theatrical, but you can’t look away. It reminds me a little bit of the raw, uncomfortable energy you see in The Man Who Laughs, though obviously in a completely different genre.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of High School Girl (1934) through its definitive frames.

The dialogue is thick with that old-timey moralizing. You know the kind—where every problem is solved by a stiff lecture and a firm handshake. It makes you realize how far we’ve come, or maybe just how differently we talk about our feelings now. It’s not quite as grim as Starving Beauties, but it definitely isn't a comedy.

I caught myself checking my watch a few times during the second act. The pacing is weirdly lopsided, moving fast through the stuff that actually matters and then dragging on during the scenes that are just people standing around looking worried. Still, it’s not all bad. There is a flicker of genuine humanity in the way the teacher looks at the kids when she thinks no one is watching.

Is it a masterpiece? No. Is it better than watching Something Always Happens for the fifth time? Probably not. But it’s got a weird, dusty charm that keeps you interested enough to see it through to the end. Just don't expect a deep dive into the teenage mind; it’s more of a look at how adults *thought* teenagers worked back then. 🏫