College

1927 "You'll graduate with a perpetual smile!"
6.9| 1h5m| NR| en| More Info
Released: 10 September 1927 Released
Producted By: Joseph M. Schenck Productions
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Synopsis

A bookish college student dismissive of athletics is compelled to try out sports to win the affection of the girl he loves.

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Joseph M. Schenck Productions

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Reviews

Hellen I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much
Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!
Glimmerubro It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.
Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.
robert-temple-1 This is an inferior Buster Keaton feature film. Considering how brilliant Keaton was, and how marvellous many of his feature films are, this one is a serious disappointment. I do not believe it would necessarily have been regarded that way when it came out, however. A lot of sport has flowed under the bridge since then. The film is primarily about Buster trying and failing at every conceivable sport (except football) which was common then at 'college' (the American term for university). Buster plays a bookish student who has contempt for sports but in order to try to win the heart of the girl he loves, tries to become a sportsman. In the days before sport was on television ad nauseam every single day, this would have had much more appeal than it has now. Sport historians of course would find this film fascinating, if there are any sport historians, that is. All the expected things happen: Buster tries the shot-put but cannot lift the shot and falls over under its weight, he tries the high jump but crashes into the rod, he tries the hurdles but knocks them all over, and so on. Considering that this film came between Buster's famous films THE GENERAL (1926) and STEAMBOAT BILL JR. (1928), it is remarkable that it lacks a fraction of the appeal of either of them. The DVD is good quality, with a well-restored print, so there are no quality complaints. The silent era was coming to an end, and what one can say in favour of COLLEGE is that it could never have succeeded at all in the sound era, so if Keaton really wanted to explore sports, it is just as well that he squeezed this film in just in time. It may be that other people will enjoy this film far more than myself, especially if they are fascinated by the subject, and there is no questioning the brilliance of Keaton's comic timing and technique, which are up to their usual standard. He also co-directed the film. Another reviewer has justly observed that this film resembles in theme the excellent film THE FRESHMAN (1925) by Harold Lloyd, which I would say is far more amusing than this one. These days when there are so many teen flicks about, the subject of kids going to 'college' and being 'freshmen' has little novelty, but in the twenties, it was all of great interest, especially to the dazed parents trying to understand their increasingly wild children, an anxiety clearly demonstrated by the film THE WILD PARTY (1929) starring Clara Bow in a film about girls going wild at college. People interested in seeing anything and everything that clever Buster Keaton did can, of course, not afford to miss this major film of his, as long as they are prepared to be bored by parts of it and wonder why he bothered making it.
Michael_Elliott College (1927) *** (out of 4) Lesser quality Buster Keaton film has him playing a dorkish book worm who is told by his girlfriend that she doesn't want him unless he becomes an athlete. Once in college Buster goes all out trying to find a sport that he can do. This isn't a masterpiece or even a very good film but it does have plenty of laughs and it's always fun seeing the athletic Keaton dumb it down and not being able to perform all the athletic stuff. I'd say this film was rushed into production after The General tanked at the box office and it's pretty much unlike anything Keaton had done before. You really don't get to see him genius stunts and instead you pretty much just get a one-note joke of a dork trying to be a star athlete. Still, there are plenty of laughs including the best sequence where Keaton, needing a job, gets in blackface only to have it melt off and then he's attacked by the real black folks.
barnesgene Let's take a look at the racism in the "coloured waiter" scene. Keaton is merely exploiting the shorthand comedic racial material of his time, imitating a black person's walk, getting in the middle of a love triangle back in the kitchen, on and on. But don't we today make fun, in stand-up comedy, of racial differences? Plenty, and nobody says boo. So why are we so judgmental?The final outcome of the episode is what counts, however: Keaton is run out of the restaurant by the coloured folk, who obviously have the power to do so. I think most people could show the scene to their young children, and, with a little explanation to accompany it, it will do little harm, and in fact may be a valuable learning experience."College" gets an "8" from me only because I'm not fond of comedians manipulating their audience into empathetic discomfort, as Keaton tends to do throughout the movie. And, no, the gags aren't all that great. Still, Keaton on auto-pilot is, well, Keaton after all.
SofaKingFresh I am not a HUGE Buster Keaton fan. I am, however, beginning to like his movies more and more. Even though the emotion on his face doesn't change, he is still a pretty damn good actor. I bought this movie on DVD from the 99 cent store. I have seen his most famous movie (The General) and i must say that this movie entitled "College" is a lot better. Every single scene had great entertainment. Very well filmed for that time. This movie really made me see how times have changed. In the scene where he plays a black waiter is something that would never make it into a movie these days. The ending was really original. Lots of laughs and of course, his physical comedy was excellent as usual.

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