Themes: Looking For Love, College Life, Nothing Goes Right
Main Cast: Buster Keaton, Anne Cornwall, Flora Bramley, Harold Goodwin, Buddy Mason, Grant Withers
Release Year: 1927
Country: US
Run Time: 6rl minutes
Plot
The silent comedy feature College stars Buster Keaton as a scholarly young man who doesn't know beans about sports. When he arrives in college, Buster finds that all the Big Men on Campus are jocks. To impress pretty coed Anne Cornwall, Buster tries and fails to join all the school teams. Even when he attempts to take a job at the campus soda fountain, Buster is a washout. Through the kindness of dean Snitz Edwards, Keaton is placed on the varsity rowing team where, despite several clumsy moments, he manages to win the big race. This infuriates his athletic rival Harold Goodwin, who seizes Cornwall and runs off with her. In racing to her rescue, Buster is compelled to repeat all the sports activities at which he'd previously failed--and does so, magnificently. He bursts into Goodwin's dorm room and saves Cornwall from the usual worse-than-death fate. Hero and heroine kiss--at which point this lighthearted film takes a sudden, chilling turn. As always, Buster Keaton performs his own stunts in College, except for the pole-vaulting bit, which was accomplished by Olympic champ Lee Barnes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Snitz Edwards - The Dean; Carl Harbaugh - Crew Coach; Sam Crawford - Baseball Coach; Florence Turner - Ronald's Mother; Lee Barnes - Keaton's Double for Pole Vault; Robert Boling; Charles Borah; Leighton Dye; Kenneth Grumbles; Bud Houser; Morton Kaer - Himself; Erick Mack - Himself; USC Baseball Team - Themselves; "Shorty" Worden; Paul Goldsmith
Credit
James W. Horne - Director, J. Sherman Kell - Editor, John Muri - Composer (Music Score), Devereaux Jennings - Cinematographer, Bert Haines - Cinematographer, Joseph M. Schenck - Producer, Carl Harbaugh - Screenwriter, Bryan Foy - Screenwriter, Fred Gabourie - Technical Director, Harry Brand - Production Supervisor
Set in Southern California, the movie opens with Ronald graduating high school as the school’s “most brilliant scholar”. At his graduation, Ronald speaks on the “Curse of the Athlete” in which he argues that books are more important than athletics.
After Graduation Ronald decides to follow Mary, the girl who rejected him because she loves athletes more than book worms, to Clayton which the dean describes as an “athlete-infested college”. While at Clayton, Ronald, in an effort to impress Mary tries out and fails in the various sports.
Eventually the dean calls in Ronald to ask him why his grades are suffering. After Ronald explains the situation to the dean, the dean empathizes with Ronald and orders the rowing coach to make Ronald the coxswain in the upcoming competition. The coach reluctantly agrees but tries to sabotage Ronald so he cannot compete.
Meanwhile, Mary starts to appreciate Ronald’s futile efforts to impress her. However, on the day of the competition Jeff, Mary’s jock boyfriend, gets kicked out of college and takes her hostage in her room in an effort to get her kicked out also so she can marry him. In the end, Ronald ends up winning her over.
