Movie Review: Sorority Girl (1957)

Synopsis: Even though she comes from a wealthy family, Sabra Tanner is a bit of an outcast in her sorority. That, along with a poor relationship with her mother, causes her to torture a pledge, something that has her on the verge of being expelled. When she learns one of her sorority sisters, Tina, is pregnant, she attempts to exploit the situation by convincing Tina to blackmail a local bartender, Mort, for $1000 if he doesn't want her to lie and name him as the father. Only the plan doesn't work, leaving both women in a crisis.

Who's in it? The movie stars Susan Cabot, Dick Miller, June Kenney, Barbara Cowan and Barboura Morris.

Review: I ended up picking out the movie Sorority Girl this morning mostly because I saw it was directed by Roger Corman, and I normally enjoy his films. After watching it, however, my opinion of it was very mixed.

I thought the movie did a great job of developing the characters. This is especially true of Sabra (Cabot), who is technically the movie's villain but at the same time it was hard not to feel a bit sorry for her. Sabra's mother (Fay Baker) seemed cold and uncaring, almost as though loving her daughter was an inconvenience. Plus, while her sorority sisters weren't necessarily unfriendly toward her, they also seemed to be somewhat unforgiving whenever she made a mistake, choosing to threaten to go to the dean rather than have a conversation about what was going on in her life.

The part about Tina (Kenney) being "in trouble," was also an interesting part of the plot. She seemed desperate enough to do whatever Sabra suggested, and I wondered just how far that would be taken once Mort (Miller) shut down their extortion attempt.

My biggest problem with this movie is it felt like it was going to build to something but ultimately fell short of getting there. I honestly believed this would be one of those films that would see Sabra snapping and murdering her sorority sisters who had wronged her. Or perhaps it wouldn't be Sabra and instead be Ellie (Cowan), the girl Sabra had been torturing both physically and mentally. 

Instead, the movie ends with a beach scene, a suicide attempt and then leaves the rest to the imagination before rolling the credits. It was a somewhat weak ending, at least in my opinion, to a film that otherwise had been intriguing. It proved to be somewhat disappointing as a result.

Final Opinion: The movie does a good job showing off Corman's ability to create engaging characters. However, the overall plot would have been considerably better had the film gone in another direction. 

My Grade: C

Here are some reviews of other movies from 1957:

Movie Review: Pharaoh's Curse (1957)

Movie Review: The Unholy Wife (1957)

Movie Review: Voodoo Woman (1957)