Harold Lloyd stars as an eager teen who can’t wait to go off
to college to become a big man on campus.
Once at school, he is almost immediately teased by the other students who
delight in pulling all sorts of pranks on him.
Harold does all he can to be popular, but no matter what he does, his
classmate, a big movie star, constantly one-ups him. Since the college is a big football school,
Harold decides to join the team.
Naturally, the hard-nosed coach only uses him as a human tackling dummy. Predictably, during the big game, the star
player is injured and it’s up to Harold to win the game.
The Freshman has its moments, but it’s not quite up there
with Lloyd’s best stuff. The problem is
that his character is more pathetic than sympathetic. He’s too busy trying to buy friends than make
them the old-fashioned way, which makes him a tad annoying. Also, most of the humor revolves around Lloyd
being humiliated, which isn’t really all that funny. Since he plays more of a sap than his
patented everyman persona, it takes some of the wind out of the movie’s sails.
It also takes a while before we get to the bulk of the
physical comedy. The scene where he tries
to tackle a tackling dummy is pretty funny, but the scenes of him being tackled
over and over again are repetitive and soon wear out their welcome. The highlight comes when Lloyd wears a cheap
suit to a dance. His tailor keeps trying
to sew up the seams as he’s mingling, and it results in a few solid laughs. The final football scene is equally funny and
has been copied many times over the years.
It still holds up fairly well. It’s
just a shame that it takes such a long time getting around to it.
AKA: College Days.
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