College (1927 film)
| College | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | James W. Horne Buster Keaton |
| Written by | Bryan Foy Carl Harbaugh |
| Produced by | Joseph M. Schenck |
| Starring | Buster Keaton Anne Cornwall Harold Goodwin |
| Cinematography | Bert Haines Dev Jennings |
| Edited by | Sherman Kell |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
Release date |
|
Running time | 66 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
College is a 1927 comedy-drama silent film directed by James W. Horne and Buster Keaton, and starring Buster Keaton, Anne Cornwall, and Harold Goodwin.
Plot
Set in Southern California, the movie opens with Ronald graduating high school as the school’s “most brilliant scholar”. At his graduation, Ronald speaks on “the Curse of the Athlete”, arguing that books are more important than athletics.
Ronald decides to follow Mary, who rejected him because she loves athletes more than book worms, to Clayton which the dean describes as an “athlete-infested college”. Hoping to impress Mary, Ronald tries out for the baseball and track and field teams but proves to be totally inept at them. At the same time, he attempts to work jobs as a soda jerk and as a waiter in blackface while trying to keep these jobs a secret from Mary.
Eventually the dean asks Ronald why his grades are suffering. After Ronald explains the situation, the dean empathizes with him and orders the rowing coach to make Ronald the coxswain in the upcoming competition. The coach tries to sabotage Ronald by slipping him a sleeping potion so he cannot compete, but the potion is accidentally consumed by the team's other coxswain instead. Despite Ronald capsizing the boat, pulling the rudder off the boat mid-race, and causing collisions with other boats, the Clayton team wins the race.
Meanwhile, Mary starts to appreciate Ronald’s futile efforts to impress her. However, on the day of the competition Jeff, Mary’s jock boyfriend, gets kicked out of college and takes her hostage in her room in an effort to get her kicked out also to get her to marry him. In the end, she manages to contact Ronald by telephone, who in a sudden show of athleticism sprints to her dormatory, pole vaults into her window, and fights off Jeff by throwing household objects at him. Mary agrees to marry Ronald and they live the rest of their lives together.
Cast
- Buster Keaton as Ronald
- Anne Cornwall as Mary Haynes
- Harold Goodwin as Jeff
- Flora Bramley as Mary's friend
- Snitz Edwards as Dean Edwards
- Carl Harbaugh as Crew Coach
- Sam Crawford as Baseball Coach
- Florence Turner as Ronald's mother
See also
External links
- College at IMDb
- College is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive
- Template:Amg movie
- College at the International Buster Keaton Society
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