An intense story about a sadistic teenage cadet at a southern military school and the dehumanizing and bullying tactics he uses in hazing other students. A creepy upper-classman named Jocko de Paris, devises a complex scheme to get another student thrown out of the school. He sets up a cheating card game where the attending freshmen are scared stiff.
A football star with a known violent temper is plied with alcohol and then made very angry specifically so he'll beat up another student. Other scenes include shoving a rubber tube down a student's throat and forcing him to guzzle whiskey. The sadistic Jocko visits one student's room and taunts him about his fear of women and arranges a date with a floozy so he'll overcome his phobia.
Because the students are in a military school, the freshmen must address the upper-classmen as "sir" and "obey" orders. This, along with an effective use of black and white photography, adds an especially sinister sadistic vibe to the film. There is also a homoerotic undercurrent. This was Ben Gazzara's first major film role and George Peppard's first film. Most of the actors and technical staff came from the Actors Studio of New York City. Ben Gazzara, Pat Hingle, George Peppard, Peter Mark Richman, Arthur Storch, Paul E. Richards, Larry Gates, Clifton James, Geoffrey Horne, James Olson, Julie Wilson. The Strange One.