College

Starring: Buster Keaton, Anne Cornwall, Harold Goodwin, Flora Bramley, Snitz Edwards
Directed by: James W. Horne, Buster Keaton (uncredited)
Rating: Not rated
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Sport
1927

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A nerdy scholar (Buster Keaton) follows the woman (Anne Cornwall) to college, where he decides to try out for various athletics teams in order to win her heart.

Review:

Tim: I was excited to see Buster Keaton's follow up to his monumental The General. This movie came out during the same year, and unfortunately, does not come close to comparing with that movie. This is a decent effort, but ultimately falls too short.

Keaton once again has some very entertaining and funny scenes. He's such a physical comedy force- I love just watching him entertain with his body language. He was amazing at that. Most of the gags here center around athletic events (although the shrinking suit is pretty funny). It's fun to see him make a mess of baseball, track and field events, and crew, but these slapstick moments leave something to be desired. They are funny, but relatively safe and don't push the envelope at all. It felt like a scaled-back version of Keaton's trademark humor. Some scenes go on far, far too long. The scenes with him doing the track and field events seems to go on forever. While it's funny, after a certain point, we get it- his character is awful at sports and will get himself into trouble no matter what he tries. Unfortunately, these scenes go on and on, way past the point where they could be considered a strength.

I also thought there were some absurd moments throughout the movie that didn't make sense, and detracted from the quality of the film. For example, it makes absolutely no sense that the dean of the college would force the crew coach to use Keaton's character as the coxswain for the big race. Why on earth would any logical human being do something so stupid? It makes no sense, but of course, it puts Keaton in a funny situation. I also thought the scene with Anne Cornwall, where her boyfriend decides to get her expelled from college so that she'll want to marry him. Does this make sense at all? Again, yes, it sets up a humorous scene nicely, but it makes no logical sense. Why would someone do something horrible to someone, in the hopes of ruining their life, all so that person will want to marry them? It's moronic.

I will say that the film builds beautifully to the conclusion. After the crew race ends, Keaton is stunning. I was amazed at how the entire film was building (unknown to the audience at the time) to the eventual finale. It was pretty amazing, and everything in the movie suddenly made sense. I love how the movie ended. That being said, it's not enough to make up for some of the film's flaws.

While I loved some of Buster Keaton's antics and his physical performance here, the movie as a whole just doesn't work quite as well. This is certainly a decent movie and has some incredible scenes, but it left me wanting more. College works on some levels, but this is not one of Keaton's best.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: The General, Steamboat Bill, Jr.; Go West