The Freshman (1925)

My first exposure to the comedy of Harold Lloyd was in the early 2000s when Turner Classic Movies ran a marathon of his movies.   I had already been familiar with the movies of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton; The Gold Rush and The General were staples on PBS.  Yet, Harold Lloyd’s movies were largely unavailable for some time, so when TCM ran this marathon I was compelled to watch.  I was instantly hooked. A few years later, when New Line released a box set of his movies, I immediately bought it (twenty seven movies for sixty dollars! WHAT A DEAL!!!).  I’ve also had the privilege of seeing three of his movies on the big screen: Why Worry?, The Freshman, and Safety Last.  This is the ideal way to watch a Harold movie; it comes to life in a packed house. 

The Freshman is considered by many to be Lloyd’s best movie, which actually surprises to me. The Freshman is an entertaining, often hilarious movie, yet it’s greatly flawed in the story aspect. The problem I have with it is that Harold’s motivation is fairly self serving one– he wants to be the most popular student on the college campus.  His sole reason for going to college is not to better himself academically, but socially.  It is interesting that in a movie with a college setting there is not a single scene set in the classroom. We see Harold try out for the football team, romance Peggy, and go through a whole series of humiliations, but never once does he crack open a book.  In one of the movie’s more clever ideas, Harold is inspired to go to college after seeing a movie called “The College Hero.” It’s not college that interests him, but the idea, or rather the movie’s idea of college that gets him all fired up. He is obsessed with the movie to the point where he imitates the main character’s, Speedy, silly hand shake (he does a silly jig and then extends out his right hand). This, justifiably, makes him a laughing stock of the college campus.  

Harold realizes that the only way for him to be the “college hero” is by joining the football team and winning a few games. Harold tries out of the team and the coach is less than impressed, but after the tackling dummy has been wrecked, he decides that Harold will be a perfect substitute; he replaces an inanimate dummy with a human dummy.  While the coach doesn’t have any use for Harold as a player, he is impressed with the young man’s spirit, and keeps him on the squad; albeit as the water boy.  The Freshman was made an era when college football was significantly more popular than pro football; the idea being that football was all well and good while in college, but once the men graduated it was time to start their real careers.  When The Freshman was made many pro football players adopted colorful nick names; this was done, in part, to give them larger than life personas, but mostly to spare their family any sort of embarrassment. It really wasn’t until the advent of television that pro football caught on with the masses. 

The Freshman also has the most offbeat football game ever shown on the big screen. Did Harold Lloyd even understand the rules? For instance, Harold’s team picks up a first down (due to a twenty yard catch accidentally hauled in by Harold), but a few plays later Harold is waiting to field the other team’s punt.  We don’t see any change of possession, so why is Harold fielding a punt? Is this supposed to take place later in the quarter? Are there a few shots missing? If that isn’t enough, we are then shown the worst bit of (fictional) coaching in cinema history.  After recovering Harold’s “fumble,” the other team, with mere seconds left on the clock, opts to punt the ball instead of just running out the clock. This allows for Harold to run the punt back and win the game.  Hopefully, the opposing coach was fired after the game, because this most baffling play calling I have ever witnessed; and I say that as Packers fan who watched my team squander a twelve point lead (against Seattle) with five minutes left on the clock, thus losing out on a chance to go to the Super Bowl.  AAAAHHHH!!!!  The football scene is fun too watch, but it’s devoid of any real sense of urgency; Harold fighting against the clock to win the respect of his peers doesn’t really carry much dramatic weight.  It is also a bit troubling to see Harold, sitting on the bench,  hoping one of his teammates gets injured so he can be allowed to play. It’s funny, but it goes to show just how shallow his character really is. 

The problem I have with The Freshman is that the football game is fairly anti-climatic; the real ending of the movie is when Harold punches out the College Cad for making an inappropriate pass on Peggy. The Harold/Peggy romance is the real heart of the story and it’s responsible for some of the movie’s more memorable moments:  Harold and Peggy meet in the dining compartment on a train. Peggy is working on a crossword puzzle and Harold sits down next to her. Harold becomes transfixed by the puzzle and thinks he figured out the word for: a name for the one you love.  He shares his answer ("Sweetheart") with Peggy and then she comes back with another alternative ("Darling"), then they go back and forth with different words.  The old lady seated behind them overhears the conversation and mistakenly believes they are showing their affection for each other. She finally chimes in, “Isn’t it wonderful to be in love?” Harold hears this, freaks out, and runs out of the room.

 Later on when Harold is at a dance at the hotel, he notices that Peggy is alone, working at the counter and slowly realizes that his place is with her.  These are wonderful scenes played to absolute perfection by Lloyd and his regular leading lady, Jobyna Ralston. It is hard not to feel for these two people.  It is also interesting to note the one trope that is missing in The Freshman – the popular girl that Harold obsesses over. Though, it might not have been invented yet.  Most teen comedies feature a subplot where the main character obsesses over the popular girl, while being oblivious to the fact that his female friend, who is usually a tomboy, is in love with him.  The Freshman doesn’t bother with a pointless love triangle, because it’s hard to imagine Harold falling for anyone other then Peggy. Harold Lloyd understands this and allows the romance to speak for itself.

In the entertaining commentary, Rich Correll and Leonard Maltin, point out that, like Harold, Peggy is one of the “have nots.”  She doesn’t attend college, but works multiple jobs - as a counter girl at a hotel and helping her mother run the boarding house that Harold is living in. She immediately relates to Harold because they come from similar backgrounds. He doesn’t put on an act when he is around her and is free to be himself.  The question is - especially after having found his soul mate in Peggy – WHY DOES HAROLD CARE ABOUT BEING POPULAR?! His classmates treat him absolutely terribly, yet Harold is still determined to win them over. WHY? It practically undermines the wonderful moment where Harold and Peggy finally reveal their true love for one another.  Harold, you found a girl that likes for you who you are, to hell with your douchebag classmates.  It’s also interesting to note that Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky follows the same structure as The Freshman; except Stallone wisely places the emphasis on the Rocky/Adrian relationship, while the fight between Rocky and Apollo is a plot device that sets the story in motion.  Even though Rocky loses the match, the movie has a happy ending because he has found his soul mate in Adrian.  

The Freshman is not Lloyd’s funniest movie, but it does make for an invaluable time capsule of the 1920s – all the trends of the time are on full display.  In one funny bit, Harold, while dancing with a college girl, checks the back pockets of his classmates to see if they are carrying a flask.  The Freshman was made during Prohibition, so the possession of alcohol had to be hidden from plain sight.  Harold’s father is described as a “radio liar,” a term that would have no meaning to modern day audiences. Essentially, Harold’s father likes to futz around on the radio and claims that he is able to tune in far away countries.  Radio was the 1920s equivalent to social media; it was a way for people to reach out to other countries. In the football game, there is no designated passer; the quarterback position was virtually nonexistent at this time and wouldn’t really be perfected until the 1940s with the arrival of such athletes like Sid Luckman (of the Chicago Bears) and Sammy Baugh (of the Washington Redskins). 

It wasn’t until recently that many critics began to hold Harold Lloyd in the same regard as Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, largely because Lloyd didn’t have the same amount of control as the other two.  Lloyd was the driving force behind his movies but usually relinquished directing duties (Sam Taylor and Fred C. Newmeyer are the credited directors of The Freshman).   While Lloyd may not have been as artistically driven as the Chaplin and Keaton, he was easily the best actor out of the three.  Lloyd could have easily been a leading man in any genre, because there was a great range in his acting abilities. His love scenes with Jobyna Ralston are easily on par (if not better) than most romance movies that Hollywood was turning out at the time.  His movies are easily on par with anything that Chaplin and Keaton put out during this era.  Most filmmakers would agree with me; Cary Grant’s look in Bringing Up Baby was inspired by Harold Lloyd. Hell, Lloyd was even the model for Clark Kent.  Lloyd was even a huge influence on the 1960s counterculture;  the ending of The Graduate was  greatly inspired by the ending of Girl Shy.  The Graduate is often described as “the movie that defined a generation.”  How ironic that it was taking its notes from a comedian of an earlier generation!

Credits
Cast: Harold Lloyd (Harold Lamb), Jobyna Ralston (Peggy), Brooks Benedict (The College Cad), Pat Harmon (The Football Coach), James H. Anderson (The College Hero), Hazel Keener (The College Belle), Joseph Harrington (The College Tailor), May Wallace (Harold’s Mother),Charles Stevenson (Assistant Coach).

Directors: Fred C. Newmeyer, Sam Taylor.
Screenplay: Sam Taylor, Ted Wilde, John Grey, Tim Whelan, Thomas J.Grey (titles), Harold Lloyd.
Running Time: 76 min.