The Freshman | Chicago Reader

The Freshman

Harold Lloyd is a small-town boy hoping to make good as an undergraduate at Tate, described as "a large football stadium with a college attached." Released in 1925, this classic silent comedy tapped into the mingled envy and resentment many Americans then felt for the privileged few who could afford a higher education: when the bright-eyed innocent arrives at school, he's mercilessly ridden by smug upperclassmen and used as a tackling dummy by the football squad. Among the great silent comedians, Lloyd can't compete with Chaplin and Keaton, but he perfectly embodied the can-do energy of the 1920s, and few things are quite as funny as his bespectacled, apple-pie face twisted by a panic that was always justified.

Credits

Directors:

  • Sam Taylor
  • Fred Newmeyer

Cast:

  • Harold Lloyd
  • Jobyna Ralston
  • James Anderson
  • Joe Harrington
  • Brooks Benedict
  • Hazel Keener
  • Pat Harmon
  • Charles Stevenson
  • Oscar Smith
  • Grady Sutton
  • Gus Leonard
  • Charles Farrell

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