The Snob (1958)
A high school girl's condescending treatment of her classmates gets her branded a snob; the film traces the roots of her attitude through party scenes and peer confrontations to model, and correct, the behavior for viewers.
Produced by Centron Productions, one of the most prolific studios in the classroom social-guidance business, The Snob applies Centron’s stock diagnose-and-correct structure to status anxiety rather than manners or hygiene, framing snobbishness as a fixable personal failing rather than a social outcome.
Background
The Snob was produced by Centron Corporation of Lawrence, Kansas, as part of its “Discussion Problems” series for high-school classroom use, and directed by Herk Harvey, later known for the independent horror film Carnival of Souls. It follows Sarah Inman and Ron Johnson, once childhood friends who have drifted apart since starting high school; Ron now hosts open Friday-night parties, while Sarah stays home with her homework and privately dismisses his crowd, including class president Bill Tyler, as shallow. Her aloofness earns her a reputation as a snob before she realizes it herself.
What to watch for
The turning point comes when Ron’s mother pushes him to invite Sarah to one of his parties anyway, setting up the film’s discussion-friendly clash between her chosen isolation and his easy popularity. Centron built its reputation on exactly this format, naming a social problem and then walking a teenage cast through its causes and a tidy resolution for classroom debate afterward. The Snob was revived decades later as part of “Mental Hygiene: Social Guidance Films 1945-70,” a retrospective at the American Museum of the Moving Image that gave many of these shorts, including this one, their first public screening in more than thirty years.
