Last Date

This infamous classroom cautionary short tells the sad tale of Jeanne who, after a long hospital stay, sits alone in her bedroom while her peers frolic outside, wondering, "Who would want to go out with me now?" We flash back to some time earlier when she was being fought over by "the two most popular boys in school." Larry is serious and courteous; but Nick is "thrilling," especially when driving like a maniac in his "souped-up hot rod." Never mind that such recklessness makes him a prime "candidate for teenicide." But Joan will live to regret hitching her wagon to this "really snazzy" speedster. Her fate, revealed at the "shocking" close, was designed to strike maximum terror into the hearts of American girls of the era. If "Nick" looks familiar, that's because actor York later found lasting fame playing the hapless husband of suburban witch Elizabeth Montgomery on television's BEWITCHED. - Dennis Harvey