The Freshman [Criterion Collection] [2 Discs] [Blu-ray/DVD]

Director: Fred Newmeyer, Sam Taylor Fred Newmeyer

Overview

One of Harold Lloyd's best feature-length comedies, The Freshman, features the bespectacled regular guy as Harold Lamb, a naïve young man who heads off to college believing campus life will be just as it is in the movies; he even learns a little dance he saw one of his favorite actors do in a film. However, Harold soon discovers that real life isn't all that much like the pictures, and he quickly becomes the laughing stock of the university. Determined to prove himself, Harold tries out for the football team, but he serves as water boy and rides the pine until he finally gets a chance to redeem himself at the big game. Along the way, Harold also tries to woo a lovely co-ed, Peggy (Jobyna Ralston). 22 years later, writer/director Preston Sturges used the climactic football game as the opening for his collaboration with Harold Lloyd, The Sin of Harold Diddlebock.

Product Details

Release Date:	03/25/2014
UPC:	0715515112918
Original Release:	1925
Rating:	NR
Source:	Criterion Collection
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[B&W]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono, Dolby Digital Stereo]
Language:	English
Time:	1:16:00
Sales rank:	11,502

Special Features

New 4k digital film transfer from a 1998 restoration by the UCLA Film & Television Archive; New orchestral score, composed and conducted by Carl Davis, persented in uncompressed stero on the Blu-ray; Audio Commentary featuring Director and Harold Lloyd archivist Richard Correll, film historian Richard Bann, and film critic Leonard Maltin; On-camera introduction to The Freshman by Lloyd and a clip reel, both from Harold Lloyd's Funny Side of Life (1966); Three newly restored Lloyd shorts: The Marathon (1919), with a new piano score by Gabriel Thibaudeau, and An Eastern Westerner and High and Dizzy (both 1920), with orchestral scores by Davis; Harold Lloyd: Big Man on Campus, a new visual essay on the film's locations by Lloyd author John Bengston; Conversation between Correll and film historian Kevin Brownlow; Footage from a 1963 Delta Kappa Alpha tribute to Lloyd, featuring comedian Steve Allen, Director Delmer Daves, and actor Jack Lemmon; Lloyd's 1953 appearance on the television show What's My Line? ; Plus: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Stephen Winer

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Harold Lloyd	Harold Lamb
Jobyna Ralston	Peggy
Brooks Benedict	College Cad
James Anderson	Chester A. Trask
Hazel Keener	College Belle
Joseph Harrington	Tailor
Pat Harmon	Head Coach
Charles Stevenson	Assistant Coach,Assistant Coach
Oscar Smith	Dean's Chauffeur
Grady Sutton	Student
Gus Leonard	Waiter
Charles Farrell	Student
Mike	Mascot Dog

Technical Credits

Sam Taylor

Jean Havez

Ted Wilde

Lex Neal

Clyde Bruckman

Tim Whelan Sr.

John Grey

Fred Newmeyer	Director
Sam Taylor	Director,Screenwriter
Harold Lloyd	Producer
Jean Havez	Screenwriter
Ted Wilde	Screenwriter
Lex Neal	Screenwriter
Clyde Bruckman	Screenwriter
Tim Whelan Sr.	Screenwriter
John Grey	Screenwriter

Scene Index

Disc #1 -- The Freshman
1. Opening Credits [2:16]
2. College Dreams [6:03]
3. The Tate Limited [5:59]
4. Opening Address [6:53]
5. "Speedy the Spender" [6:03]
6. Fighting Spirit [8:50]
7. The Water boy [5:21]
8. The Fall Frolic [12:04]
9. The Naked Truth [8:26]
10. "The Days of Days!" [9:45]
11. Two Minutes to Go [5:04]
1. College and Football [2:16]
2. Family Connections [6:03]
3. Mother Love [5:59]
4. "Nothing Has Changed" [6:53]
5. Economic Context [6:03]
6. Substitution Gag [8:50]
7. Modern Audiences [5:21]
8. Previews [12:04]
9. A Little Time Capsule [8:26]
10. Different Stadiums [9:45]
11. "Can He Do It?" [5:04]

Menu

Disc #1 -- The Freshman
   Play the Movie
   Chapters
      Color Bars
   Commentary
      Commentary: On
      Commentary: Off
      Index
         Color Bars
   Harold Lloyd's Funny Side of Life
      Play
   Short Films
      The Marathon
         Play
      An Eastern Westerner
         Play
      High and Dizzy
         Play
Disc #2 -- The Freshman
   Kevin Brownlow and Richard Correll
      Play
   Harold Lloyd: Big Man on Campus
      Play
   Delta Kappa Alpha Tribute
      Play
   What's My Line?
      Play

Editorial Reviews

Harold Lloyd's most successful silent feature, The Freshman (1925) satirizes 1920s college life, the all-consuming campus passion for football, and movie-made fantasies through the comic misadventures of Lloyd's eponymous character. As a bespectacled nerd who yearns for nothing more than collegiate popularity, Lloyd's frosh discovers that a jig he saw in a movie doesn't have quite the same social effect in real life, leading to his attempt to join the revered football team. Displaying his athletic and comedic skills for mining humor out of physical punishment, Lloyd becomes the team's target for practicing tackles before his optimistic yet oblivious striver gets his longed-for chance in (what else?) the Big Game. An enormous hit for the phenomenally popular "third" master of silent comedy, The Freshman inspired Lloyd and 1940s master of sound comedy Preston Sturges to explore what happened to the momentarily triumphant Harold after college in The Sin of Harold Diddlebock (1947); The Freshman's simultaneously hilarious and rousing football climax serves as Sturges's prologue two decades later.

All Movie Guide - Lucia Bozzola