Sorority House (film)

Last updated
Sorority House
Directed by John Farrow
Screenplay by Dalton Trumbo
Based onthe story "Chi House"
by Mary Coyle Chase
Produced byRobert Sisk
Starring Anne Shirley
James Ellison
Cinematography Nick Musuraca, A.S.C.
Edited by Harry Marker
Music by Roy Webb
Production
company
Release date
  • May 5, 1939 (1939-05-05)
Running time
64 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Sorority House is a 1939 American drama film starring Anne Shirley and James Ellison. The film was directed by John Farrow and based upon the Mary Coyle Chase play named Chi House. [1]

Contents

Plot

Alice Fisher is the daughter of Lew Fisher, a grocery store owner. She is surprised when he reveals he has college money for her. Alice goes to a boarding house and becomes friends with roommates Dotty Spencer and Merle Scott. Dotty suggests Alice join a sorority if she spikes up her looks and earns a few more bucks.

Meanwhile, Alice falls in love with Bill Loomis, who is dating Neva Simpson. He asks Alice out for a date and recommends her for a sorority, stating she is actually rich but pretends not to be. When Alice writes her father a letter that she doesn't have the money for a sorority, he sells his store to a chain and receives the money.

Bill and Alice soon fall in love resulting in conflicts, since Bill is still in a relationship with Neva. [2]

Cast

Production

Mary Coyle Chase wrote a play Chi House. It had not been produced when RKO bought the screen rights in April 1938 as a vehicle for Anne Shirley. [3]

The film was originally going to star Shirley, Lucille Ball and Frances Mercer. By August, the title was changed to Sorority House and Dalton Trumbo was writing the script. [4] Ball and Mercer do not appear in the final film.

Tim Holt was originally announced as male lead, intending to be reunited with Anne Shirley from Stella Dallas but this did not eventuate. [5] The male lead was eventually played by James Ellison.

John Farrow was assigned to direct and filming began 7 February 1939. [6]

Veronica Lake was cast in a small role, her first screen part. This was removed in the edit, but the experience encouraged Lake to pursue acting. [7]

Sorority House was a loose reworking of RKO's earlier Finishing School (1934). Scripted by Dalton Trumbo, who'd later get into hot water with the House Un-American Activities Committee for another screenplay about a group of ladies living together, Tender Comrade (1943). This film was later used by the same House committee as evidence of Dalton Trumbo spreading communist propaganda. Trumbo was subsequently blacklisted. [8]

Proposed sequel

The film was described as a "surprise hit" and RKO announced plans to make a sequel with Shirley, Read and Ellison, mostly likely to be directed by Farrow, called Final Exams. [9] (This sequel was announced as early as April. [10] However, no film resulted.

Related Research Articles

<i>The Saint Strikes Back</i> 1939 film by John Farrow

The Saint Strikes Back is a 1939 American crime film directed by John Farrow. It marks the second cinematic incarnation of the antihero crimefighting character Simon Templar, alias "The Saint". George Sanders replaced Louis Hayward, who had played the Saint in The Saint in New York. The movie was produced by RKO and also featured Wendy Barrie as female gang leader Val Travers. Barrie would appear in two more Saint films, playing different roles each time, though not in the next film in the series, The Saint in London. This was the second of eight films in RKO's film series about The Saint, and the first of five with Sanders in the title role.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jon Hall (actor)</span> American actor (1915–1979)

Jon Hall was an American film actor known for playing a variety of adventurous roles, as in 1937's The Hurricane, and later when contracted to Universal Pictures, including Invisible Agent and The Invisible Man's Revenge and six films he made with Maria Montez. He was also known to 1950s fans as the creator and star of the Ramar of the Jungle television series which ran from 1952 to 1954. Hall directed and starred in two 1960s sci-fi films in his later years, The Beach Girls and the Monster (1965) and The Navy vs. the Night Monsters (1966).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tim Holt</span> American actor (1919–1973)

Charles John "Tim" Holt III was an American actor. He was a popular Western star during the 1940s and early 1950s, appearing in forty-six B westerns released by RKO Pictures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Farrow</span> Australian film director (1904–1963)

John Villiers Farrow, KGCHS was an Australian film director, producer, and screenwriter. Spending a considerable amount of his career in the United States, in 1942 he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director for Wake Island, and in 1957 he won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Around the World in Eighty Days. He had seven children by his wife, actress Maureen O'Sullivan, including actress Mia Farrow.

Edward Small was an American film producer from the late 1920s through 1970, who was enormously prolific over a 50-year career. He is best known for the movies The Count of Monte Cristo (1934), The Man in the Iron Mask (1939), The Corsican Brothers (1941), Brewster's Millions (1945), Raw Deal (1948), Black Magic (1949), Witness for the Prosecution (1957) and Solomon and Sheba (1959).

<i>Five Came Back</i> 1939 film by John Farrow

Five Came Back is a 1939 American black-and-white melodrama from RKO Radio Pictures produced by Robert Sisk, directed by John Farrow, written by Jerry Cady, Dalton Trumbo, and Nathanael West, and starring Chester Morris and Lucille Ball. The film was photographed by cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca. Although considered a B movie, the positive notices received by Ball helped launch her career as an A-list actress. Five Came Back is considered a precursor of the disaster film genre. The supporting cast features Wendy Barrie, John Carradine, C. Aubrey Smith, Kent Taylor, and Patric Knowles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ann Richards (actress)</span> Australian actress (1917–2006)

Shirley Ann Richards was an Australian actress and author who achieved notability in a series of 1930s Australian films for Ken G. Hall before moving to the United States, where she continued her career as a film actress, mainly as a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer starlet. Her best known performances were in It Isn't Done (1937), Dad and Dave Come to Town (1938), An American Romance (1944), and Sorry, Wrong Number (1948). In the 1930s, she was the only Australian actor under a long-term contract to a film studio, Cinesound Productions. She subsequently became a lecturer and poet.

Seton Ingersoll Miller was an American screenwriter and producer. During his career, he worked with film directors such as Howard Hawks and Michael Curtiz. Miller received two Oscar nominations and won once for Best Screenplay for the 1941 fantasy romantic comedy film, Here Comes Mr. Jordan, along with Sidney Buchman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alan Marshal (actor)</span> Australian actor

Alan Marshal was an Australian-born actor who performed on stage in the United States and in Hollywood films. He was sometimes billed as Alan Marshall or Alan Willey.

<i>Full Confession</i> 1939 American film

Full Confession is a 1939 United States proto film-noir, crime drama film made by RKO Radio Pictures. It was directed by John Farrow from an adaptation by Jerome Cady of Leo Birinski's story. The film stars Victor McLaglen, Sally Eilers, Barry Fitzgerald and Joseph Calleia.

<i>The Petty Girl</i> 1950 film by Henry Levin

The Petty Girl (1950), known in the UK as Girl of the Year, is a musical romantic comedy Technicolor film starring Robert Cummings and Joan Caulfield. Cummings portrays painter George Petty who falls for Victoria Braymore (Caulfield), the youngest professor at Braymore College who eventually becomes "The Petty Girl".

Married and in Love is a 1940 American film directed by John Farrow.

<i>A Bill of Divorcement</i> (1940 film) 1940 film by John Farrow

A Bill of Divorcement is a 1940 film directed by John Farrow. It was also known as Never to Love and was based on a 1921 British play of the same name, written by Clemence Dane that was filmed in 1932 with John Barrymore and Katharine Hepburn.

<i>Reno</i> (1939 film) 1939 film by John Farrow

Reno is a 1939 American drama film directed by John Farrow and starring Richard Dix, Gail Patrick and Anita Louise.

<i>Little Miss Thoroughbred</i> 1938 film by John Farrow

Little Miss Thoroughbred is a 1938 film directed by John Farrow. Peggy Ann Garner made her debut in the film. It was also known as Little Lady Luck.

<i>Comet Over Broadway</i> 1938 film by Busby Berkeley, John Farrow

Comet over Broadway is a 1938 American drama film starring Kay Francis, Ian Hunter and Donald Crisp. It was produced and released by Warner Brothers. John Farrow stepped in as director when Busby Berkeley became ill, but Farrow was uncredited on the film.

<i>South of Pago Pago</i> 1940 American film

South of Pago Pago is a 1940 American South Seas adventure film directed by Alfred E. Green and starring Victor McLaglen, Jon Hall and Frances Farmer.

<i>The Duke of West Point</i> 1938 film by Alfred E. Green

The Duke of West Point is a 1938 American drama film directed by Alfred E. Green and starring Louis Hayward, Joan Fontaine and Tom Brown. It was described as "A Yank at Oxford in reverse".

<i>The Law West of Tombstone</i> 1938 film by Glenn Tryon

The Law West of Tombstone is a 1938 Western film. It was an early Western for Tim Holt.

<i>Mr. Moto in Danger Island</i> 1939 film by Herbert I. Leeds

Mr. Moto in Danger Island is a 1939 American mystery film directed by Herbert I. Leeds and starring Peter Lorre, Jean Hersholt and Amanda Duff. It is part of the Mr. Moto series of films.

References

  1. Richard Jewell & Vernon Harbin, The RKO Story. New Rochelle, New York: Arlington House, 1982. p. 130.
  2. Movie Mirror Plot outline
  3. "Screen News Here and in Hollywood – Bobby Breen Will Be Seen in 'Hans Brinker' – Bette Davis and Warners End Feud – Two Films Open Today –. New York Times. April 30, 1938. p. 18. Retrieved January 25, 2018.
  4. Scheuer, P.K. (August 5, 1938). "Binnie Barnes given contract and lead". Los Angeles Times. ProQuest   164880882.
  5. Schallert, Edwin (12 December 1938). "Selznick Quests New Serious Lombard Idea". Los Angeles Times. p. 28.
  6. Schallert, Edwin (February 1, 1939). "Second sports story lined up for O'Brien". Los Angeles Times. ProQuest   164944138.
  7. Strauss, Theodore (November 8, 1942). "Veronica Lake, Full Face". New York Times. p. X3. Retrieved January 25, 2018.
  8. "Sorority House (1939) - John Farrow - Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related - AllMovie". AllMovie.
  9. Schallert, Edwin (July 7, 1939). "Drama". Los Angeles Times. ProQuest   165002710.
  10. Churchill, Douglas (April 22, 1939). "Screen News Here and in Hollywood – 'Busman's Honeymoon' and 'Earl of Chicago' Listed for London Studios by Metro – 'Grapes of Wrath' Sold – Bought by Twentieth Century Fox — 'Heroes of the Maine' Has Its Premiere Today". New York Times. p. 15. Retrieved January 25, 2018.