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| This traumatized teddy has seen too much, too soon in the world of 1970s porn. |
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| A typical XX Series cover. |
"Sorority Sisters" opens with its title spelled out on a small plastic pegboard. I'd seen this board in other loops, including "Sex & Magic." It's also used in some of the early films from the Cinema Classics and Dirty Girls series. While Cinema and Dirty were made before loops had subtitles, they belong to the same family of loops as the seemingly endless Swedish Erotica series. While SE would eventually become producer Noel Bloom's primary franchise, he released numerous other series in the early 1970s, including Pussycat, VIP Films, Fanny Films, and many others.
The XX Series is undoubtedly another of Bloom's loop series, based on the common set decorations and cinematic tropes I've observed in the surviving titles. "Sorority Sisters" is especially ripe with these correspondences.
After the title card, we are introduced to two attractive young ladies, a blonde and a brunette. The blonde is carrying a suitcase and arriving at the brunette's apartment. They greet each other with a hug. A wipe effect makes it appear as if a black curtain closes across the screen, then reopens. This transports us to a bedroom, where the girls hop on the bed and the blonde removes handfuls of leather whips from her suitcase. Kissing ensues, then touching and the removal of clothes. Eventually, the brunette's white go-go boots are the only remaining items of apparel. The girls then begin pleasuring each other with their tongues and fingers, as the camera roams across their bodies and in between their legs. This is all filmed in long, languorous takes with plenty of medium closeups and extreme closeups. One take in particular takes up fully half the film's roughly 10-minute running time.
The filmmaking style on display here is highly reminiscent of the earliest Swedish Erotica films, the first 19 of which are believed to have been made by Ed Wood. And I've seen that curtain wipe edit before, too. There's one in the aforementioned Pussycat series, for instance. "Sorority Sisters" was likely made just before Noel Bloom started adding subtitles to his silent loops.
This film could have been shot as early as 1971. I've seen props from The Young Marrieds turn up in other loops whose visible clapperboards mark them as having been made in October 1971. In fact, I'll go as far as to surmise that The Young Marrieds and several related loops, including those containing the curtain edit, were all shot during a brief period in the fall of 1971.
The sets were located at Hal Guthu's studio on Santa Monica Blvd. The "Sorority Sisters" bedroom set, it turns out, is the same bedroom (very slightly redressed) of the main characters, Ben and Ginny, from The Young Marrieds. The pillowcases feature the same pattern as a familiar sheet set I've often noticed in adult films of this era, e.g. Swedish Erotica loop #16, "Behind the Ate Ball Part II." The craggy-looking lamp to the right of the bed, meanwhile, is the same one from Ben and Ginny's bedroom, and it even sits atop the same nightstand. To the left of the bed are a nightstand and a yellow, barrel-shaped lamp that show up in literally dozens of 1970s adult loops.
Arguably the coolest set decoration in "Sorority Sisters," however, is the painting that hangs above the bed. Apparently a religious painting of a young boy and girl -- a nimbus encircles the girl's head -- this same artwork turns up in two different places in The Young Marrieds. It's hanging over Ben and Ginny's bed, and it's also seen above Jim's bar when Ben and Ginny visit his home for that swinger orgy.
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| The same painting turns up in both "Sorority Sisters" (left) and The Young Marrieds (right). |
The more of these films I see, the more these connections become clear. It's obvious to me that these movies were all made during the same short span of time. But with no subtitles or credits, it's difficult to determine if Ed Wood himself had any involvement with "Sorority Sisters." At the very least, we can say that Eddie worked on the same set where this loop was shot. Could his involvement have run deeper? There are two moments in particular that jump out at me:
1. When the blonde removes the brunette's sheer panties, the camera lingers on the panties and slowly follows their path as the blonde reaches over the edge of the bed and gently releases them on the floor. There's clearly a fetishist at work behind the scenes, someone who deeply appreciates women's undergarments.
2. Despite the blonde showing off her collection of whips, we never see the whips put to use. They are merely discarded on the floor after having been displayed. The sight of those whips at the beginning of the film must have planted some expectations in the average viewer's mind. (It certainly did in mine!)Both the fetishism and the lack of narrative payoff are typical of Ed Wood.
As for the possible religious symbolism of the artwork and what it says about the characters in these films, make of it what you will. Those saintly children in the painting remind me of other implacable observers, like the Chinese Guardian Lions and the panther painting. For me, the painting certainly helps cast the characters in a different light.
I'll cast my vote and say that Ed was present at Hal Guthu's studio and serving in some creative capacity when "Sorority Sisters" was shot. What do you think?