College

1927's COLLEGE is certainly one of one of Buster Keaton's lesser vehicles, but for me it's never a waste of time to be reminded of where the later filmic clowns got their moves.  As I get older I find myself less patient with imitations.  Be it films, music, literature.  I guess everyone copies to some extent, but seeing homages to what came before seems pointless if you can go right to the source.  And Keaton, who co-directs with James W. Horne, once again creates a template for physical comedy that does a smooth dance with human drama.

Keaton plays model student Ronald, whose high school graduation speech damns athletics and prizes academia.  The object of his affection, Mary (Anne Cormwall) thinks he's worthless and weak for having such an attitude.  She's more interested in that dolt Jeff (Harold Goodwin), who finally graduates after seven years.  Nonetheless, Ronald follows her to Clayton College to try to change her mind.  It is there that he will attempt all manner of sport, of course failing spectacularly at all.  Most of COLLEGE is a series of gags in which Ronald's ineptitude is shown at baseball and several track and field events, while his rivals look on and laugh/play pranks on him.  Ronald's gracelessness is somewhat impressive, but does go on for some time, and makes this sixty-five minute film seem longer (and padded) in moments. 

Mary begins to come around when she sees the poor boy trying, and is impressed when he becomes the coaxswain of the rowing team.  She does not know the dean forced the coach to recruit him.  Will Clayton win the big race, despite Ronald's continued spatial deficiencies?

COLLEGE does muster some sympathy for Ronald, and it never felt cheap.  Many viewers won't feel the same about the sequence in which he dons blackface to get a job as a "colored waiter", but how that scene turns out should make even the most left wing of you cheer; it's a great, curious moment for a film from the 1920s.  And the final four or five minutes of the film are just great, nicely tying in previous gags for a frenetic climax, which in a matter of seconds also becomes bittersweet.