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[DVD] College (1927) starring Buster Keaton from Movie Classics

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Buster Keaton stars as the brainy student who goes to college and tries to win his sweetheart by becoming an athlete. Needless to say, everything he tries (mainly baseball and track & field) he's a flop in. He's finally assigned to the crew team as its coxswain, wins the big race with his ingenuity, and then rescues his girlfriend from a kidnapper by employing all the athletic skills he couldn't muster on the field.

Actually the whole picture is just a series of sporting ineptness sight gags, predictable and fairly obvious, but made marvelous by Keaton's tremendous talent: he makes them very funny to watch. An indication of their greatness is the fact that so many of the routines have been used again and again by others in Hollywood. Silent. Worth a watch.

First a word about 'gray market' DVDs--
Often, transfers are not of the highest quality. The movies themselves are unrestored and rarely pristine (but still watchable), extras are non-existent and inclusion of artwork or liner notes varies by manufacturer.


In COLLEGE (1927), Buster Keaton portrays an anti-athletics bookworm named Ronald who, for love's sake, adopts a totally different philosophy.

At their high school graduation ceremony, Ronald alienates a girl he's sweet on by giving a speech that disparages sports. To try to win Mary's affections, Ronald enrolls in college, where he hopes to become an athlete. He fails miserably however-- an interesting premise, especially in Buster's case, for he was a naturally-gifted baseball player and acrobat capable of immense feats of strength.

Defeated and depressed, Ronald's honors-level grades plummet, so the school's dean gets involved. He sympathetically puts Ronald on the rowing team as coxswain (the man who steers). Mary comes to appreciate all of the young man's efforts, but when Jeff, her jock boyfriend is expelled from school, he takes Mary hostage, hoping she'll get thrown out, too and they can be married. This brings Ronald running to the rescue.


Also recommended: Buster's SHERLOCK, JR. (1924) has some of the most astounding trick photography ever seen. It's the story of a movie projectionist with an overactive imagination. This DVD edition also includes OUR HOSPITALITY (1923)-- a Hatfield/McCoy tale of a young man whose life is endangered when he visits his girlfriend's family.

Parenthetical number preceding title is a 1 to 10 imdb viewer poll rating.

(7.3) College (silent-1927) - Buster Keaton/Anne Cornwall/Flora Bramley/Harold Goodwin/Snitz Edwards/Carl Harbaugh/Sam Crawford/Florence Turner/Grant Withers

COLLEGE (writ., prod.,dir. Buster Keaton as usual! 1927, 65 minutes) has Buster Keaton playing Ronald, a bookwormish, scholarly student trying to win over his gal. She seems to think he's a weakling, so he goes in for all the athletics he can.

Here BK is surrounded by 6-footers and bigger, all athletes and intimidating. Naturally you will see pure genius as BK struggles to compete and fails to make any teams. He busts his heinie at baseball, shotputting, javelin, and anything else they can throw at him. When the dean learns of his plight, he commiserates and gets BK on the rowing team as coxswain.

The fellers viciously attempt to poison BK to keep him off the team, but he proves far too smart for all that - and proves to be a spectacular coxswain. All that is left is for him to dash over to save the day when his gal's endangered by the lout who is also chasing her. When he races to her rescue, you will see BK himself was an Olympic-quality athlete. No fooling.

The laughs really never stop in this spectacular but overlooked BK classic. There is some racism, common to the era, and BK performs in blackface. All this is offensive today; however, I believe BK was mocking the blackface tradition and showing his solidarity with the black community. Watch for yourself and see. BK often hired black performers to do good work - and this film is no exception. A bit of advice: watch the blackface scenes BK does, and with whom.

This film shows a man I have trouble identifying, but looks like BK's twin brother. I think it is his stuntman, as BK had one to perform when BK absolutely could not do it. He appears again in Battling Butler / Go West (Ultimate 2-Disc Edition) (see my review of both those) in BATTLING BUTLER as the boxer. This film also premiers the name "Damfino", the name of the team rowboat. When asked about the meaning of this, one is supposed to reply, "Damned if I know," like Buster did. His international fanclub is called The Damfinos.

There is no porkpie in this film at all. None. Zero. BK wears his freshman beanie - common in that era - or otherwise goes hatless. I always mention the status of BK's hat, because that particular hat took on symbolic significance which BK played to the hilt.

Do not leave this out of your collection or fail to see it if you can. It is one of BK's biggest, funniest and most overlooked movies.