High School is a 1940 American teen comedy film[1] directed by George Nicholls, Jr. and written by Jack Jungmeyer, Edith Skouras, and Harold Tarshis.

The film stars Jane Withers as a spirited 13-year-old tomboy who is sent from her widowed father's ranch to learn at Thomas Jefferson High School in San Antonio, Texas, where she alienates her fellow students with her arrogant and know-it-all personality.

After she pranks her tutors for the umpteenth time, James Wallace decides to send her off to San Antonio to the Thomas Jefferson High School run by his brother, Henry, who is none too pleased that his niece, known for her high-handed shenanigans, is coming.

What she doesn't know is that the class had been trying to protect star football player "Slats" Roberts, a less than stellar student, who subsequently flunks the test and is barred from playing in a big game the next day.

Then Jane overhears a conversation in the principal's office which reveals that Slats is under suspicion by the police for aiding a gang of stolen-car thieves in his work at an automobile repair shop.

Jane escapes by knocking out her captor with a mechanized pulley and runs back to the school, where she rallies the entire ROTC unit to come rescue Slats.

[1][2] Executive producer Sol Wurtzel jumpstarted the project after reading a March 7, 1938, article about Thomas Jefferson High School of San Antonio, Texas, in Life magazine.

[3] The film features the songs "The Old Chisholm Trail", a traditional melody with new lyrics by Sidney Clare, and "Il bacio" ("The Kiss") by Luigi Arditi.

While Withers performs with "her usual exuberance", this review acknowledged Brown's "freckle-faced, open-mouthed, slow-thinking" character for providing "a good foil for the sharpness and vivacity of the young star".