(There are Spoilers) Strange to say the least "The Strange One" is a story about a military college in the deep south that's been more or less taken over by this swaggering and full of himself cadet Jocko DeParee, or DeParis as it's spelled in English, played by 27 year old Ben Gazerra in his motion picture debut. Jocko is in a way a lot smarter then both the cadets and military officers at the academy and uses his smarts to get people to do things for him. Jocko uses his vast knowledge of the human mind, whatever you say about this low down rat he certainly knows his stuff, to manipulate everyone he comes in contact with there.
We first see Jocko in action as he sets up cadet George or Georgie Avery, Geoffrey Horne, for the big fall. Getting him involved in this off the wall plan that Jocko cooked up with the help of two freshman cadets who had no idea at all what they were in for Marquales & Simmons, George Peppard & Arthur Storch. In what at first looked like a weird initiation rite Jocko had Marquales and Simmons get involved in a game of poker with another cadet the academy's star football tackle Roger Gatt,James Olson, by having both of them serve him up drinks as Jocko cheated Roger, who by then was too drunk to even notice, out of $90.00 in the card game.
Turning on Simmons who's deep religious belief's forbid him to drink or serve anyone else drinks Jocko really lets the confused and bewildered cadet have it by having a broom, used by both him and a very drunken Roger, whacked against his behind. This beating of Simmons didn't stop until Georgie who's in the next room charged in and tried to brake this lunacy up. With Georgie's dad the commandant of the academy Maj. Avery, Larry Gates, coming over to see what was going on he finds Jocko sound asleep as if nothing at all happened. The next morning Georgie is found, fully dressed, outside the barracks savagely beaten and his body stinking from bottles of whiskey and vodka that were lying all around him.
It's obvious to everyone watching the movie that Jocko and his friends, willing or unwilling, put Georgie in the mess that he was found in but all the evidence, Jocko saw to it, pointed that he got himself juiced and fell down a flight of stairs ending up at the quadrangle with his head broken. Thrown out of the academy from drunkenness and conduct unbecoming of an officer in the US military Georgie actions bothers his dad Maj. Avery to no end. It's not only that his son ended up being a disgrace to his uniform Maj. Avery feels deep down inside, and rightly so, that Georgie was set up by Jocko as an act of revenge.
Jocko besides being a master manipulator is also very sadistic as well in his dealings with his fellow cadets. Jacko takes sadistic pleasure in needling Simmons into both going out on a date with a girl and getting drunk. Simmon's deep religious beliefs forbids him to drink and his vow of celibacy forbids him to have anything to do with the opposite sex, like going out on a date and possibly getting laid that would take away his virginity that he claims that he's saving for his wedding night; that only encourages Jocko to torment the poor guy even more. With Jocko now on a roll in having Georgie kicked out of the academy he turns his sights on Georgies dad Maj. Avery. Whom he hates even more then Georgie in that he busted him the year before for being too rough, to say the least, with the freshman cadets in his charge.
As if by accident or by plan Jocko is called into Maj. Avery's office and told that he's AWOL from guard duty. It's then that the Major finds out that Jocko's been excused from guard duty by the commanding officer of the military academy. This leads to a major confrontation with with Maj. Avery with Jocko getting slapped silly for inferring that the Major was a bad influence to his boy Georgie, whom he drove to become a sloppy drunk, with everyone within earshot seeing it! The Major himself is now in danger of being kicked out of the academy for the unprovoked, since he never raised a hand to him, attack on Jocko!
Jocko's actions get so out of hand that in the end the cadets including his roommate Harry Koble, Pat Hingle, just had all that they can take from him. Now they set him up in a mock trial for all the mischief he committed at the academy and Jocko is forced to sign a confession of his crimes. It's then that he's run out of the academy on a rail as he, when he recovers from the shock, swears to those gleeful and happy cadets who are glad that their finally rid of him that he'll be back and back with a vengeance.
About the only cadet who had any liking for the sleazy Jocko DeParis was the creepy Perrin McKee, Paule E. Richards, who's also known as "The Cockroach", because he crawled around the academy like one. Perrin ironically was the only one who could have fingered him in what he did to Georgie Avery in being an eye witness to the whole sickening act. Perrin seemed to be so in love with Jocko, going so far as writing his biography that took all of 92 chapters, that he just overlooked or was blinded by his love and admiration for Jocko in just what a lowlife creep he really was. In the end it was fitting that "The Cockroach" would end up being the only friend that Jocko has left in the entire world.
We first see Jocko in action as he sets up cadet George or Georgie Avery, Geoffrey Horne, for the big fall. Getting him involved in this off the wall plan that Jocko cooked up with the help of two freshman cadets who had no idea at all what they were in for Marquales & Simmons, George Peppard & Arthur Storch. In what at first looked like a weird initiation rite Jocko had Marquales and Simmons get involved in a game of poker with another cadet the academy's star football tackle Roger Gatt,James Olson, by having both of them serve him up drinks as Jocko cheated Roger, who by then was too drunk to even notice, out of $90.00 in the card game.
Turning on Simmons who's deep religious belief's forbid him to drink or serve anyone else drinks Jocko really lets the confused and bewildered cadet have it by having a broom, used by both him and a very drunken Roger, whacked against his behind. This beating of Simmons didn't stop until Georgie who's in the next room charged in and tried to brake this lunacy up. With Georgie's dad the commandant of the academy Maj. Avery, Larry Gates, coming over to see what was going on he finds Jocko sound asleep as if nothing at all happened. The next morning Georgie is found, fully dressed, outside the barracks savagely beaten and his body stinking from bottles of whiskey and vodka that were lying all around him.
It's obvious to everyone watching the movie that Jocko and his friends, willing or unwilling, put Georgie in the mess that he was found in but all the evidence, Jocko saw to it, pointed that he got himself juiced and fell down a flight of stairs ending up at the quadrangle with his head broken. Thrown out of the academy from drunkenness and conduct unbecoming of an officer in the US military Georgie actions bothers his dad Maj. Avery to no end. It's not only that his son ended up being a disgrace to his uniform Maj. Avery feels deep down inside, and rightly so, that Georgie was set up by Jocko as an act of revenge.
Jocko besides being a master manipulator is also very sadistic as well in his dealings with his fellow cadets. Jacko takes sadistic pleasure in needling Simmons into both going out on a date with a girl and getting drunk. Simmon's deep religious beliefs forbids him to drink and his vow of celibacy forbids him to have anything to do with the opposite sex, like going out on a date and possibly getting laid that would take away his virginity that he claims that he's saving for his wedding night; that only encourages Jocko to torment the poor guy even more. With Jocko now on a roll in having Georgie kicked out of the academy he turns his sights on Georgies dad Maj. Avery. Whom he hates even more then Georgie in that he busted him the year before for being too rough, to say the least, with the freshman cadets in his charge.
As if by accident or by plan Jocko is called into Maj. Avery's office and told that he's AWOL from guard duty. It's then that the Major finds out that Jocko's been excused from guard duty by the commanding officer of the military academy. This leads to a major confrontation with with Maj. Avery with Jocko getting slapped silly for inferring that the Major was a bad influence to his boy Georgie, whom he drove to become a sloppy drunk, with everyone within earshot seeing it! The Major himself is now in danger of being kicked out of the academy for the unprovoked, since he never raised a hand to him, attack on Jocko!
Jocko's actions get so out of hand that in the end the cadets including his roommate Harry Koble, Pat Hingle, just had all that they can take from him. Now they set him up in a mock trial for all the mischief he committed at the academy and Jocko is forced to sign a confession of his crimes. It's then that he's run out of the academy on a rail as he, when he recovers from the shock, swears to those gleeful and happy cadets who are glad that their finally rid of him that he'll be back and back with a vengeance.
About the only cadet who had any liking for the sleazy Jocko DeParis was the creepy Perrin McKee, Paule E. Richards, who's also known as "The Cockroach", because he crawled around the academy like one. Perrin ironically was the only one who could have fingered him in what he did to Georgie Avery in being an eye witness to the whole sickening act. Perrin seemed to be so in love with Jocko, going so far as writing his biography that took all of 92 chapters, that he just overlooked or was blinded by his love and admiration for Jocko in just what a lowlife creep he really was. In the end it was fitting that "The Cockroach" would end up being the only friend that Jocko has left in the entire world.