Cross Country Run

The print of this film that I have seen is in fact clearly a much earlier entry in the series, with some added scenes (the cheerleaders with the dates "1929" and "1930") for a 1929 re-release with added sound effects (although the version I saw was silent).

Benson is still a freshman and the whole tone of the rivalry between Benson and Trent film has a certain seriousness (indeed a certain nastiness) which disappears in later episodes which become increasingly slapstick.

In fact it appears to be the same film as the 1926 'The Last Lap" (the fourth entry in the series advertised by coach Jones as about a cross country run at the end of episode three - Making Good). The Last Lap is extant, although I have not seen it, and the still of Benson that appears on the IMDB page for this film is exactly the same scene (and he is wearing exactly the same sweater) in the Professor's office that appears in Cross Country Run.

It is one of the better episodes (the series declined progressively in quality as it went along) and seems to have been the first directed by Ruggles (introducing the character of Horace 'Doc' Webster whom Ruggles had created for his 1925 film The Plastic Age.

George Lewis is found in the professor's office with the test papers. He says that Eddie Phillips gave him the note. The professor didn't write it and Phillips denies it, so the dean says he can't run in the cross-country race against Phillips. Can Dorothy Gulliver prove him innocent?

It's one of the COLLEGIANS shorts from Universal, a series produced by a bright new talent that studio head Carl Laemmle found in his own home, Carl Laemmle Jr. It has nothing at all to do with college and studying. It's all about 'varsity sports. Every episode deals with the college structure finding some problem to fling in the way of Mr. Lewis' prowess and Miss Gulliver finding the solution.

It proved a very popular series, at least in the Laemmle household, and its excellence was celebrated by Mr. Laemmle (Jr.) being appointed head of production at the studio on his 21st birthday.