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This film reminded me a lot of Harold Lloyd's "The Freshman," in which Harold goes out for sports in college to impress a girl - same story - and made two years earlier. I am partial to Lloyd's version but I enjoyed this, too.

Keaton's version starts off with the high school graduation ceremony. "Ronald" (Keaton), the scholar of the class, gives a speech denouncing athletics as a total waste of time and promoting being a bookworm over anything else. This speech is so offensive to the crowd that everyone leaves but Keaton's mom, who applauds. By the way, all the high school graduates look between 25-35 years of age. These are the oldest-looking high school seniors in history!!

Anyway, a girl Buster is trying to impress "Mary Haynes" (Anne Cornwall), was among those not impressed with his snobby "scholar" speech. She'd rather have an athletic man. So, upon entering college, "Ronald" tries a variety of sports, to gain the approval of the girl. (Does this theme sound familiar, not just in the Lloyd film but so many of Keaton's other films?)

He attempts to play baseball but is so clueless he puts on all the catcher's equipment to play third base. Suffice to say, after a number of plays ensue, it's more than evident that "Ronald" is a little bit out of his element! Next, he goes out for track, but gets discouraged when two little kids speed by him on the track. Throwing the discus and javelin are not good ideas, either. His high-jumping routine is very funny. He isn't bad in the hurdles, however. Obviously, pole vaulting doesn't work and the hammer throw almost gets his teammates killed, so he's told to leave.

He gets a call from the Dean's office. The Dean, who liked him from the start because he preferred studies over sports, is distressed because Buster's grades are bad. Buster explains his problems and the Dean (played by the always-funny Snitz Edwards) sympathizes because, being a wimpy little guy, he same problem years ago with a woman he liked. So, as a favor, Dean Edwards orders the rowing coach to install Buster as the coxswain of the team. The coach and the crew don't want this, as "Little Lord Fauntleroy" or "Mama's Boy" and other names he's called, has a reputation already at college as an athletic loser. They try to sabotage his attempt at being part of their crew, but he turns the tables. The funniest scene is when the new coxswain literally becomes the boat's rudder.

The neatest part of the film is the ending, which is usually the case in silent comedies. Suffice to say that Buster puts all of his athletic talents, which were not effective on the sports fields, to good use to get the girl. It's a memorable ending.

While not one of Buster Keaton's very best films, this one has some enjoyable sequences and some good comedy material.

The plot is fairly simple, with Buster as a bookish college student who feels that he must succeed at athletics in order to win the girl he wants. It doesn't have the brilliant creativity of Keaton at his best, but on the other hand it does have some very funny moments.

Some of the best parts are the misadventures of Buster's character as he tries his hand at various sports. Even in portraying a character who is athletically inept, Buster demonstrates his own great ability at physical comedy. There are some fine gags in these scenes, and there is some good subtle material in the other parts of the movie.

For those who are not familiar with Keaton, there are several better examples of what he could do. But if you enjoy his brand of humor, you'll certainly want to see "College" too. It's more low-key than usual, but it has plenty of good material that makes it worth watching.

College (1927) was an interesting film that Buster Keaton made during the later days of the silent movie period. In "College", he plays a student who tries all kinds of school sports just so he could impress a girl he's fallen head over heels for. As usual the film is a showcase for Buster Keaton's talents as a stuntman, comedian and director. A little known film but it's one of his better ones. If you're a fan of the silent cinema or a Buster Keaton fan I advise you to pick up a copy of "College". A nice little film that has a "sweet" ending.

Recommended.

A I don't know how many different running times there are for this movie.

The one I saw clocked in at a little over an hour.

COLLEGE (United Artists, 1927), directed by James W. Horne, is something of a sort-after silent classic inspired by Harold Lloyd's more successful college comedy, THE FRESHMAN (1925), starring Buster Keaton demonstrating on how to fail as an athlete without really trying.

The story opens one rainy afternoon with Ronald (Buster Keaton), carrying his umbrella, walking along side with his mother (Florence Turner) to attend his high school graduation ceremony along with his other classmates: Mary Haines (Anne Cornwall), the girl he loves, and Jeff Brown (Harold Goodwin), his rival for Mary's affection and star athlete who is finally graduating after seven years. Ronald, the school's "most brilliant scholar," receives his diploma, and is asked by the members of the faculty to speak on the "Curse of Athletics," which he does. After degrading sports by saying "The student who wastes his time on athletics rather than study, shows ignorance" and "Where would I be without my books," wins approval with the teachers but not with his classmates, especially Mary, who finds his speech ridiculous. Because Ronald loves Mary, he finds he might now really lose her to Jeff (Harold Goodwin). As Mary and Jeff register at Clayton College, Ronald decides to enroll there also, and with no financial support from his mother, he decides to work his way through college where he intends to win back Mary's affection by becoming an athlete himself.

In true Keaton fashion, he tries out in all sports imaginable, ranging from baseball, track and field events, shot-put and finally as a coxswain on a varsity crew team in an important race, and flunks. Even while working as a soda jerk and as a waiter, he fails at that, too. But after he learns that his girl is in trouble does he pull out all stops in making himself a success without realizing how good he actually is.

COLLEGE may not be as well known as Buster Keaton's other silent film comedies, including two of which come to mind, SHERLOCK Jr. (1924) and, of course his masterpiece, THE GENERAL (1926), but it's a simple-minded story set against a college backdrop that features plenty of sight gags and sports activity to make this one enjoyable, especially to any avid sports fan.

The supporting players include: Snitz Edwards as the college dean; Grant Withers, Sam Crawford, Buddy Mason and Flora Bramley. While these names are not particularly well-known, it's the Buster Keaton name heading the cast that has generated interest in this comedy, then and now.

COLLEGE was one of the twelve selected films to appear during the summer months on public television's 1975 weekly presentation of "The Silent Years" as hosted by Lillian Gish, with a piano score and color tints from the Paul Killiam collection. Before the airing of the feature-length silent comedy, Gish would talk a little about Keaton's career and how he became known as "Buster,", present a 20-minute comedy short, ONE WEEK (1920), and then ask for the viewers awaiting to see COLLEGE to not be offended with one particular scene where Keaton's character of Harold is working in a restaurant disguised as a "colored" waiter. This plea would still reflect upon viewers of today.

COLLEGE, which is available on video cassette and DVD, can be seen in various ways, depending on the distributor, especially with its time length. Blackhawk Video's version accompanied with the same piano score that was used in "The Silent Years," runs at 60 minutes; while Video Yesteryear's accu-speed version with organ score runs close to 100 minutes. A more recent and recommended (1992) restored version with clearer picture and a fine new organ score by John Muri, running at 65 minutes, was the one formerly shown on cable television's American Movie Classics (1997-2001), and later on Silent Sunday Nights on Turner Classic Movies.

In spite of a handful of college-sports films produced during this period, it's interesting to point out that such legends of screen comedy as Charlie Chaplin and/or WC Fields have never attempted this. Future film comedians as Lou Costello and Jerry Lewis have done such, and probably were inspired by the likes of Lloyd or Keaton. However, COLLEGE is minor but enjoyable Keaton at best that would be a fine addition to any film buff's video or DVD library. (***)

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Purists like to dismiss Buster Keaton's ninth feature as an atypical and thus somehow unworthy commercial compromise forced by the relative failure of his previous masterpiece 'The General'. But while it may not have the deeper resonance of other Keaton comedies it certainly isn't lacking for laughs. The scenario itself is common enough, presenting a variation of Harold Lloyd's popular college comedy 'The Freshman', featuring Buster as an Ivy League bookworm attempting athletic competition to impress a disinterested girlfriend. But the bits of comedy in between the plot lines are unique and many, making this a film of details, some of them quite startling: Buster, carrying a tray of soup, doing a backward somersault without spilling a drop, or trying his hand at every possible track and field event with predictably embarrassing but inventive results, or adding a hilariously cold-blooded epilogue to the happily-ever-after fadeout. No matter how familiar it might appear in outline, the world inhabited by Keaton was all his own, and always contained surprises enough to delight the unwary, inattentive viewer.