THE FRESHMAN
US, 1924, 76 minutes, Black and white.
Harold Lloyd.
Directed by Fred C. Newmeyer, Sam Taylor.
The Freshman is a funny Harold Lloyd comedy of 1924. Harold Lloyd emerged as one of the most successful of the silent screen comics -along with Chaplin and Keaton. He was the ingenuous American, naive and enthusiastic, good-mannered and courteous - and wearing spectacles. (In this way he seems a predecessor to Woody Allen.)
This film satirises American college life - in the vein that it was to be used over many decades from films like the musical Good News to the teenage raucous comedies of the '80s. The film shows the traditional characters, satirises college life - especially the American preoccupation with sport.
Lloyd is a pleasing combination of the enthusiastic, the silly, the shy, the sensitive. Parts of this film were later used by Preston Sturges for a sound version of Lloyd comedy, Mad Wednesday.
1. The popularity of Harold Lloyd? His screen persona? Comic style? Image?
2. Black and white photography, the liveliness in the static style of photography of the time? The reliance on angles, editing and pace?
3. The old plot and the characters in the American college? Academic? Sport? Social?
4. Harold and his dreams about college life, looking at the college annuals, his comic skipping introduction, travelling on the train, meeting Peggy, the arrival at the station, the students mocking him, putting him in the Dean's car, going on stage, the antics with the cat, his speech to the students and asking them to call him Speedy? Shouting ice cream for them all? The small apartment? Meeting Peggy? The humorous situations: the suit for the dance, the suit coming apart at the dance? The football practice and his being victimised - and yet his enthusiasm for being on the team? Being told the truth about people mocking him? The pathos? The final football match - and his being on the sideline, the humorous choreography of his football-playing, winning the match? An American hero - of the gentle style?
5. Peggy as the romantic heroine, poor, working, hearing the truth about Harold, faithful to him?
6. The presentation of the hero - the golden-haired boy, the sports hero? The contrast with the cad and his followers? Their cruelty in mocking Harold?
7. The humour with the Dean (who never married for fear his wife would call him by his Christian name)? The Coach who would make Simon Legree look like the Good Samaritan? The tailor and his dizzy spells, the sewing of the suit during the dance and the bell ringing?
8. The humour of the captions? American comedy of the '20s - the reliance on situations, characters? The choreography of antics and stunts? Good humour?
