THE FRESHMAN
Who does not love college football? The Freshman is a loving homage to the wild and wacky, not to mention whacked-out, world of school sports and the rewards of persistence in the face of total obliviousness.
Harold Lamb (Harold Lloyd) is off to Tate University, described in the title cards as "a large football stadium with a college attached". Wanting to make a good impression, Harold takes his cues from the films he has seen to show how to behave. Among the things Harold knows to do is to do a little jig every time he meets anyone, which is met with everything from puzzlement to derision.
He also meets the pretty Peggy (Jobyna Robson), first on a train to Tate, then when owing to his naivete finds lodgings in her mother's hotel. Harold is determined to make the best impression among his collegiate class, down to presenting himself as "Speedy". He ends up getting the mocking nickname "Speedy the Spender", thoroughly unaware that everyone is literally cashing in on him.
Nevertheless, Speedy is set on joining the football team despite having no athletic skills. Harold tries out for the football team and ends up the team's literal practice dummy and later as their waterboy. Thoroughly convinced that he is a Big Man on Campus, Speedy the Spender throws a great soiree where his unfinished suit causes him chaos. Despite this disaster and the revelation of the truth, Harold is determined to make his mark on the gridiron. Will Harold find the chance to be the College Hero that he knows himself to be?
Despite my poor knowledge of football rules, even I knew that, technically, the climatic football game was filled with illegal plays. Harold would have been ruled down on many drives. However, one would have to be downright petty to give much thought to such matters. The Freshman, like its hero, is so full of heart and humor that it does not matter that endless rules were violated or ignored. That is actually part of the fun in The Freshman, its ability to operate on its own logic.
As a side note, if one thinks about it, The Freshman's hero preceded Adam Sandler's similarly-themed The Waterboy by a good seventy-three years. Both have our naive football players serve as waterboys, pursue the girl of their dreams and come through for their college team at the end. This may be the only time I compare Harold Lloyd with Adam Sandler.
The Freshman works because Harold Lloyd takes the premise seriously. He is fully committed to the story and the character. For example, after being the football team's literal punching bag, he comes home absolutely exhausted and battered. He then sees that a friend has brought over someone he has never met. Despite his physical condition, Harold nonetheless does his greeting jig, albeit in a state of near collapse.
The film has various brilliant sight gags and title cards that elicit laughter. When Harold arrives at Tate, he is blissfully unaware that the car he is directed to take is not for him, but for the Dean. "The Dean of the College--he was so dignified he never married for fear his wife would call him by his first name", the title card reads. While The Freshman runs a mere 76 minutes, it is so packed with great moments of humor that it never feels it skimped out on anything.
One of the best sequences does not even involve the big game. Instead, it involves the dance that the totally unaware Speedy throws. Owing to time, Harold's suit is not ready. A hurried job to complete it is made before he rushes off. Aware that his suit is constantly coming apart, the tailor is at the ready attempting desperately to keep it together. The various efforts at keeping up the rouse is hilarious from start to finish.
The Freshman has delightful turns from everyone in the cast. Lloyd excels as the naive Harold Lamb, sweet, unaware but determined. Ralston was very pretty as Peggy, the girl who saw the hero behind Speedy's cluelessness.
Fast-paced, charming, sweet and most of all extremely funny, The Freshman gets the ultimate passing grade.
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