THE FRESHMAN (1925)

Harold Lloyd scored his biggest box office hit 100 years ago with this college football comedy. He also popularized the college film, which remained a Hollywood mainstay until the 1940s. As naïve student Harold Lamb, he enrolls in Tate University with his head filled with crazy notions of college life picked straight out of a movie. His efforts to become popular make him a laughingstock, culminating in a slapstick football game (shot between quarters at the 1924 Rose Bowl Game). Lloyd had long dreamed of making a film about football, but by the time he was ready to shoot The Freshman, he feared that, at 31, he was too old for the title role. He needn’t have worried. His “glasses character,” the all-American go-getter, was a perfect fit for the story. Character was always the key to his comedy. He even shot the film in sequence—which was unusual for its time—so that he could get a better grasp on his role.  

Music presented by Ben Model.

d. Fred C. Newmeyer, Sam Taylor, 77m, DCP

DCP courtesy of The Harold Lloyd Trust.