SORORITY HOUSE (1939)

Cat fights.  ‘Perverse’ sexual sub-text.  Quid pro quo professors.  What else to expect with that title?  Shame on you!  Turns out this deceptively sharp R.K.O. programmer uses it’s one-hour running time to find interesting angles on the high expectations and social adjustments made when a 1930s small-town middle-class co-ed (only child of a widowed grocer) heads off to a well-heeled Liberal Arts college that lives & dies by ‘Greek’ Society.  Get ‘rushed’ by the right house and you’re a made gal; social & love connections present and accounted for.  Who says college isn’t worth the money?  Pretty Anne Shirley’s the down-to-earth freshman who meets-cute with top-dog senior James Ellison (a dead ringer for Christopher Reeve in build & profile).  He ‘helps’ her by spreading lies about a family fortune; she wins his heart by being sincere & unspoiled.  But it’s the customs & campus rituals of the time: the parties; the jackets & ties/the salon attire; the serenading frat boys & groveling pledges, the cutthroat ‘Greek’ rivalries that might be from another planet that sting.  And not as exaggerated as you might suppose.  Nothing startling, just that everything’s a little better than you expect.  And why not with Dalton Trumbo scripting from Mary Chase’s short story (Trumbo tacking on a little political speech for Dad after his daughter apologizes for excluding him from a fancy party); future noir master Nicholas Musuraca even on this workaday lensing assignment; director John Farrow (Mia’s dad) maintaining pace without pressure.  And, as a bonus, a rare chance for a remarkable Barbara Reed to show her stuff as a sophomore who knows she’s neither wealthy nor pretty enough to ever get a pledge.  (The pretty ones useful as bait to bring in trust-fund legacy boys.)  One of those little pics that thrive by being overlooked by studio execs, happy it came in under budget, ready to go on as a second-feature in big city second-runs and first-runs in the ‘sticks.’

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID/LINK:  Look for classic character actress Elisabeth Risdon in particularly good form as a snobby aunt who pushes her niece so hard it leads to a suicide attempt.  One of many moments in here that let you know R.K.O. was hoping to turn this into something closer to their big hit of 1937, STAGE DOOR.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2016/07/stage-door-1937.html