The Undergrads

Art Carney portrays retired 68 year old Mel Adler, whose pleasant existence is shattered due to a fire in his apartment from which he is barely rescued but which destroys his possessions, eventuating his son placing him into a retirement home but, after one day's residence, he is freed in turn by his grandson Jody (Chris Makepeace). Jody persuades a very willing Mel to live with him while the youth begins his first year at a local college where the roommates are enthusiastically accepted by the student body since Mel also enrolls as an undergraduate, but Jody's father tries to avoid giving them assistance as his plans for his son had concentrated upon Jody's attendance at Harvard, with a result that Mel becomes scapegoat for the change of educational venue. The quaintly paired freshmen contend with studies, a struggle not lessened by burgeoning romantic liaisons, Jody with a coed and Mel with his English instructor, while a number of subplots benefits from Carney's superb timing and ad libbing, and also from an intelligently composed script. The film's quality of amiability is never cloying, due in the main to the focussed performance of Carney as a pragmatic elder, and the work benefits as well from the able cinematography of Laszlo George and crisp editing by Ron Wisman for this Disney production utilizing attractive Toronto locations.