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Nat Pendleton as "George" the American Indian rings the changes of just about every possible stereotype ("Me-um, How, etc.) that the most gutter-minded person could imagine. It's not quite at the level of "Birth of A Nation" but comes close. I know this was a different and less sensitive time, and maybe it is wrong to judge it by current standards. At best, it is an indicator of how far we have come in the 80 years since it was filmed.

Too often the Ritz boys were not allowed to just let loose and run away with a picture like other comedy teams of the time. Even as headliners in this one, they are not really given the chance to shine as characters. In "Life", they are three college-campus tailors who befriend an American Indian who shows up as a freshman and is promptly abused by his classmates.

Fans of the politically correct steer clear, as this film does not treat Native Americans with a whole lot of respect. The first shot of the film is a sign identifying the college as a school for American Indians. A girl says, "I've never seen an Indian here". An older gentleman replies, "Oh the school was started for Indians, but they have schools on reservations now. A few years back an Indian tried to go here, but of course we ran him out!" Enter Nat Pendleton as the latest Indian, nearly running folks over on his motorcycle.

But back to the Ritzes. They get three specialty song and dance numbers entirely unrelated to the plot. Some good crazy dancing. One or two funny scenes otherwise. Meanwhile the leading man is entirely unlikeable and a bad actor to boot, so we don't even root for him to get the girl. Tony Martin has what amounts to a cameo. Joan Davis fans will be pleased.

1937's "Life Begins in College" was the fifth feature film for the popular Ritz Brothers, but the first to offer them top billing, a shame since it must rank near the bottom of all their films. To modern viewers the story of a Jim Thorpe-type athlete of Native American heritage who becomes the star quarterback for the aging coach of Lombardy College (Fred Stone, Milburn's uncle) comes off as almost entirely humorless, weak material coupled with appalling musical numbers. Nat Pendleton does what he can as the Indian George Black, but it's an uphill battle from the start, crashing his motorcycle at top speed, being hazed by fraternity brothers, and finally joining up with campus tailors the Ritz Brothers, who have spent seven years in their shop before scoring their first customer. George turns out to be extremely wealthy, courtesy Oklahoma oil wells, and the Ritzes use his money to maintain the coach who was forced to resign, his daughter (Gloria Stuart) being romanced in dreadful fashion by the team's quarterback (Dick Baldwin), taking a seat on the bench when George proves the superior player. Later vehicles would offer the boys better opportunities than this turkey, for even the hugely talented Joan Davis is let down by her lone number, chasing after her Indian until he finally relents, to her chagrin. Small roles on the team for familiar faces like Elisha Cook and Robert Lowery, with Lon Chaney Jr. making a very brief appearance in the final moments as the bench warming Gilks, who can't get into the big game with the Ritz Brothers on the verge of losing. This appears to be the last time that Chaney adorned a football feature, after roles in "Girl O' My Dreams," "Hold 'Em Yale," "Accent on Youth," and "Rose Bowl." Those game highlights are the only spark to the entire film, a look back at the early days with the single wing offense, soon to be supplanted by the T-formation that earned the Chicago Bears a 73-0 championship rout of the Washington Redskins in 1940.

This just isn't a good movie. That Ritz Brothers' comedy is limited, best in their dance numbers and very weak in the dialogue passages. They can't carry a feature-length film on their own.

But there's nothing else here to carry it for them. The script is obvious and lame- brained, and the other performers can't do anything with it. (Who could?)

And then there's the blatant racism, mostly directed against Native Americans. It's sobering to remember that this movie was made by Fox Pictures, a fairly important studio, in 1937, the same year Fox released Shirley Temple's Heidi, and two years after it starred her in The Little Colonel with Black dancer Bill Robinson.

There really isn't anything to recommend this picture. The few mildly funny passages won't compensate for sitting through 80 minutes of tedium and embarrassing racism.

An eye-popping racist comedy based on the Jim Thorpe-like story of a Native American man on the football team of an Ivy League college, this film contains so many stereotypes not even white men are immune. It is some kind of redemption, I suppose, when every character is portrayed as an idiot; however, white folks are clearly seen as superior idiots. Super talented Joan Davis as the horny white gal who cannot keep her hands off the red man, takes the prize for most offensive song: "Big Chief Swing It" (or maybe the prize goes to "Our Team Is on the Warpath." The popular and influential Ritz Brothers star, and Tony Martin lends his golden tones to the antics, but nothing can redeem this insipid time piece. The only reason to watch it is as a lesson in American racism in the not-so-good old days.