Freshman, The (1925): Harold Lloyd’s Most Popular Silent Comedy

Grade: A (***** out of *****)

The Freshman
theatrical poster

Harold Lamb (Harold Lloyd), a bright-eyed but naive youth, enrolls at Tate University. On the train there, he meets Peggy (Jobyna Ralston) and begins courting her.

For Harold, the best way to ensure his popularity at school is to emulate his movie idol, The College Hero, mimicking a jig he does before greeting anyone, and taking his nickname, “Speedy.”

However, the College Cad (Brooks Benedict) turns him into the butt of ongoing joke, of which the freshman remains unaware. Harold thinks he is popular, when he is the school’s laughingstock. Peggy, his only friemd, is the landlady’s daughter.

He tries out for the football team, but the coach (Pat Harmon) is unimpressed. However, when Harold has damaged their only practice tackle dummy, the coach uses him in its place. At the end of practice, though, he approves of Harold’s enthusiasm (undiminished after repeated tackling).

The coach is about to dismiss the freshman when Chet Trask (James Anderson), the team’s captain, decodes to make him their water boy, while letting him think he has made the squad.

Harold is persuaded to host the annual “Fall Frolic” dance. His tailor is late making his suit, and with the dance underway, it is being held together by basting stitches. During the party, his clothes start to fall apart, despite the efforts of the tailor to repair.

When the College Cad being too forward with Peggy, the hatcheck girl, Harold knocks him down. The incensed Cad then tells him just what everyone really thinks of him.

Determined to prove himself by getting into the big football game, he sees chance when the other team proves tough, injuring many of Tate College’s players; the coach reluctantly lets Harold go in.

After disastrous plays, he breaks free and is on his way to winning the game, but he drops the football outside the end zone when a non-football whistle sounds. His teammates are disheartened, but Harold rouses them to make a final effort. He chases down the opposing ball carrier, knocks the ball loose, scoops it up and runs it for the winning touchdown as time runs out, which earns him the respect he desired.

In the inevitable happy ending, Peggy proclaims her love in a note.

It was one of Lloyd’s few films to remain available after the sound era. He subsequently reissued the film (with cuts) and used extended scenes in compilation anthologies the 1960s.

The football sequence was reused by Lloyd and Preston Sturges in Lloyd’s last film, The Sin of Harold Diddlebock (1947).

Criterion released The Freshman on Blu-ray and DVD on March 25, 2014.

Critical Status:

In 1990, The Freshman was selected for preservation in the U.S. Film Registry as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant,” added in the second year of voting and one of the first 50 films to receive the honor.