As I’ve stated in the past, I have a weakness for creepy old educational films.  1954’s The Show-Off is one of the creepiest.

The Show-Off begins with a creepy schoolgirl, who appears to have wandered right out of the pages of a Stephen King novel, staring straight at the camera and asking us for our help.  It seems that a young sociopath named Jim has been giving the junior class a bad name.  We watch as Jim disrupts a class preparing for a history class.  In horror, we witness him disrupting rehearsals for the school play.  By the end of the film, Jim is intentionally tripping his fellow students and, worst of all, hanging an unauthorized banner that reads, “Yay!  Juniors!”

As the creepy girl asks us, “what would you do about the Show-off?  What would you do?”

Judging from stark grayness of the school and the bizarrely blank faces of most of the students, I imagine Jim was probably sent to Room 23 and forced to watch a Dharma Initiative video.  (Ah, Lost.  How I miss you…)

Like a lot of educational films from the 1950s, this one was directed by Herk Harvey.  Harvey would later go on to direct the classic horror film, Carnival of Lost Souls.  The Show-Off shares its odd, dream-like atmosphere with Carnival of Lost Souls.  I’m not sure if that’s intentional on Harvey’s part or if it’s just the fact that 50s were apparently a very creepy time.

Without further ado, here is Herk Harvey’s The Show-Off.