list http://www.spout.com/ Recent community activity around The Freshman on Spout Copyright 2005-9 Spout, LLC Spout RSS http://www.spout.com/images/SpoutLogoRSS.jpg http://www.spout.com/ 136 30 http://www.spout.com/films/The_Freshman/58268/default.aspx Title: The Freshman
Year: 1925
Director: Fred Newmeyer, Sam Taylor
Plot: 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. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Times Tagged: 3
Number of Lists: 5
Number of blog posts: 3
SpoutRating: 4
]]>Thu, 04 Sep 2008 01:57:21 GMTThe Freshman1925Fred Newmeyer, Sam TaylorOne of <a href="/players/P____99974/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Harold Lloyd</a>'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 (<a href="/players/P____58587/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Jobyna Ralston</a>). 22 years later, writer/director <a href="/players/P___113144/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Preston Sturges</a> used the climactic football game as the opening for his collaboration with <a href="/players/P____99974/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Harold Lloyd</a>, <a href=/films/31403/default.aspx style='text-decoration:underline'>The Sin of Harold Diddlebock</a>. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide3Slightly Tagged (1-5)534http://www.spout.com/images/no_image.jpghttp://www.spout.com/films/The_Freshman/58268/default.aspxFilm http://www.spout.com/blogs/spoutblog/archive/2008/8/26/34417.aspxPost By: SpoutBlog
Post To: SpoutBlog on spout.com
Post Date: 8/26/2008 6:01:05 PM
Body: I never went to a normal college, never lived in a proper dorm or experienced fraternity hazing or even rush week from an inside viewpoint. I went to an urban art school and then a commuter school. And though I grew up in a college town and later worked on the campus of another college I didn’t attend, I feel like I don’t have the proper perspective with which to judge most college movies and college kid characters as being true to life. This probably explains why I enjoy so many bad movies set in colleges and/or involving college students. I bet I could even check out a double feature of The House Bunny and College and have a good time at the movies. Of course, I do have some semblance of good taste, and I also recognize that none of the following movies are anywhere near the quality of my favorite college movies (including Harold Lloyd’s The Freshman, the Marx Brothers’ Horse Feathers and the Frat Pack’s Old School), or even the beloved Animal House, which I regrettably find to be highly overrated (no, that doesn’t mean I dislike it or think it’s bad or unfunny). The ten movies on today’s list are merely guilty pleasures that I can’t stop appreciating no matter how hard I try or how old I get. Teen Wolf Too - Certainly basketball is overused in high school and college sports movies, but following hoops with boxing gloves was an odd choice for this Teen Wolf sequel. It was almost as bad as having the popular jock character be on the wrestling team or, worse, a diver (see Back to School below). But despite the change of sport, the repeat of plot and the unfortunate recasting of the character “Stiles”, Teen Wolf Too has at least one enjoyable element: Jason Bateman. Even before he won our favor with Arrested Development and roles since, Bateman was quite a likable presence here. Sure, it’s not as good as the first movie, but does it really deserve that paltry 2.6 rating on the IMDb? Back to School - Having gone back to college after a long hiatus, I have a very special place in my heart for this movie. But I’ve had multiple levels of appreciation since first seeing it 22 years ago. Originally, as a kid, I just liked Rodney Dangerfield. In high school, my favorite character was “Derek,” the freaky friend played by Robert Downey Jr. Later, I got into Oingo Boingo/Danny Elfman and favored their appearance. And almost finally, when Kurt Vonnegut became my favorite writer, his cameo was the coolest thing in the world (as an added bonus: Keith Gordon, who plays Dangerfield’s son in the movie, went on to direct an adaptation of Vonnegut’s “Mother Night”). In a way, the movie isn’t too underrated; it has a decent 6.1 rating on the IMDb and a very good 87% on Rotten Tomatoes. Still, I’m always shocked that more people aren’t huge fans. PCU - I’ve already claimed my pre-hip appreciation for Jason Bateman (I even loved Valerie/Valerie’s Family/The Hogan Family, so there!), and now I must admit to having been a fan of Jeremy Piven since the beginning, too (Lucas has always been one of my favorite teen movies). I don’t know how often it’s watched these days, but looking back on it now, PCU seems to be a great souvenir from its time. Also, I’ll always remember it as the movie that taught me not to wear a band’s t-shirt to their concert and informed me of the fact that at any given time, there’s either a Michael Caine or a Gene Hackman movie being aired on television. Midnight Madness - I know it’s considered a cult classic now, but it truly deserves to be an actual classic. Is it not as popular or as widely seen as other college movies because it involves a college activity that isn’t centered around drinking or sex (there is at least the Pabst brewery)? When I first went away to college, I was nailed to the X (meaning I was straight-edge and didn’t drink or do drugs), so I would have loved it if there’d been scavenger hunts instead of keggers (actually, where I went, there wasn’t either), even if I’d already been arrested while participating in a hunt in high school. By the way, speaking of underrated scavenger hunt movies, where’s the DVD release of Scavenger Hunt already? Up the Creek - I guess not everyone has an appreciation for movies featuring Stephen Furst, despite his prominence in the king of college movies, Animal House. He followed that by appearing in both of my beloved scavenger hunt movies (see #4) and then later reuniting with his Delta brother Tim Matheson in this movie, which as a kid I always thought of as like a live-action, R-rated remake of Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown. Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise - It lacked the boobs and the bush, and its premise was pretty weak, even for being something of a redo of the first film’s plot. However, if you’ve ever seen the subsequent sequels, it’s clear that it could have been worse. Personally, I like the parts with James Hong, Bradley Whitford (always a well-played snake) and the song “No on 15″ (see the video above). Higher Learning - I tend to hate movies that so categorically divide the supposed social hierarchies of high school and college — maybe I just went to an abnormal high school, but it never seemed that distinct to me — and I don’t especially like the way this movie defines people by the music they listen to, but I have as much appreciation for Higher Learning as I do for The Breakfast Club and Crash, each of which I consider to be more about using thin characters as vehicles for ideas rather than about real people and a narrative story. Happy Together - No, I’m not referring to the Wong Kar-Wai film. Rather, the 1989 movie starring Patrick Dempsey and Helen Slater. Maybe it’s just the fact that my only college roommate was a girl. But that was intentional, unlike the scenario of this movie. Prior to its relevance to my life, though, it was merely great for featuring Supergirl (and Billie Jean) topless. Pumpkin - After so many high school and college movies in which the handsome guy or pretty girl ultimately falls for the “ugly” guy/girl, it was quite an interesting concept to have the “ugly” one be a mentally handicapped, as well as socially handicapped, person. Road Trip - Thanks to Martin Lawrence and Raven-Symone, I now have to specify that I don’t mean College Road Trip. I also have to note that I think it would be a much better movie if Tom Green wasn’t in it. Also, compared to Old School, which was also written by Scot Armstrong and Todd Phillips and directed by Phillips, it’s got about a tenth of the laughs, if even that much. Surprisingly, however, Andy Dick is actually tolerable in Road Trip and not in Old School. Is it just me, or should DJ Qualls be doing better for himself these days? Originally posted on:SpoutBlog
]]>Tue, 26 Aug 2008 22:01:05 GMTSpoutBlogSpoutBlog on spout.com8/26/2008 6:01:05 PM I never went to a normal college, never lived in a proper dorm or experienced fraternity hazing or even rush week from an inside viewpoint. I went to an urban art school and then a commuter school. And though I grew up in a college town and later worked on the campus of another college I didn’t attend, I feel like I don’t have the proper perspective with which to judge most college movies and college kid characters as being true to life. This probably explains why I enjoy so many bad movies set in colleges and/or involving college students. I bet I could even check out a double feature of The House Bunny and College and have a good time at the movies. Of course, I do have some semblance of good taste, and I also recognize that none of the following movies are anywhere near the quality of my favorite college movies (including Harold Lloyd’s The Freshman, the Marx Brothers’ Horse Feathers and the Frat Pack’s Old School), or even the beloved Animal House, which I regrettably find to be highly overrated (no, that doesn’t mean I dislike it or think it’s bad or unfunny). The ten movies on today’s list are merely guilty pleasures that I can’t stop appreciating no matter how hard I try or how old I get. Teen Wolf Too - Certainly basketball is overused in high school and college sports movies, but following hoops with boxing gloves was an odd choice for this Teen Wolf sequel. It was almost as bad as having the popular jock character be on the wrestling team or, worse, a diver (see Back to School below). But despite the change of sport, the repeat of plot and the unfortunate recasting of the character “Stiles”, Teen Wolf Too has at least one enjoyable element: Jason Bateman. Even before he won our favor with Arrested Development and roles since, Bateman was quite a likable presence here. Sure, it’s not as good as the first movie, but does it really deserve that paltry 2.6 rating on the IMDb? Back to School - Having gone back to college after a long hiatus, I have a very special place in my heart for this movie. But I’ve had multiple levels of appreciation since first seeing it 22 years ago. Originally, as a kid, I just liked Rodney Dangerfield. In high school, my favorite character was “Derek,” the freaky friend played by Robert Downey Jr. Later, I got into Oingo Boingo/Danny Elfman and favored their appearance. And almost finally, when Kurt Vonnegut became my favorite writer, his cameo was the coolest thing in the world (as an added bonus: Keith Gordon, who plays Dangerfield’s son in the movie, went on to direct an adaptation of Vonnegut’s “Mother Night”). In a way, the movie isn’t too underrated; it has a decent 6.1 rating on the IMDb and a very good 87% on Rotten Tomatoes. Still, I’m always shocked that more people aren’t huge fans. PCU - I’ve already claimed my pre-hip appreciation for Jason Bateman (I even loved Valerie/Valerie’s Family/The Hogan Family, so there!), and now I must admit to having been a fan of Jeremy Piven since the beginning, too (Lucas has always been one of my favorite teen movies). I don’t know how often it’s watched these days, but looking back on it now, PCU seems to be a great souvenir from its time. Also, I’ll always remember it as the movie that taught me not to wear a band’s t-shirt to their concert and informed me of the fact that at any given time, there’s either a Michael Caine or a Gene Hackman movie being aired on television. Midnight Madness - I know it’s considered a cult classic now, but it truly deserves to be an actual classic. Is it not as popular or as widely seen as other college movies because it involves a college activity that isn’t centered around drinking or sex (there is at least the Pabst brewery)? When I first went away to college, I was nailed to the X (meaning I was straight-edge and didn’t drink or do drugs), so I would have loved it if there’d been scavenger hunts instead of keggers (actually, where I went, there wasn’t either), even if I’d already been arrested while participating in a hunt in high school. By the way, speaking of underrated scavenger hunt movies, where’s the DVD release of Scavenger Hunt already? Up the Creek - I guess not everyone has an appreciation for movies featuring Stephen Furst, despite his prominence in the king of college movies, Animal House. He followed that by appearing in both of my beloved scavenger hunt movies (see #4) and then later reuniting with his Delta brother Tim Matheson in this movie, which as a kid I always thought of as like a live-action, R-rated remake of Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown. Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise - It lacked the boobs and the bush, and its premise was pretty weak, even for being something of a redo of the first film’s plot. However, if you’ve ever seen the subsequent sequels, it’s clear that it could have been worse. Personally, I like the parts with James Hong, Bradley Whitford (always a well-played snake) and the song “No on 15″ (see the video above). Higher Learning - I tend to hate movies that so categorically divide the supposed social hierarchies of high school and college — maybe I just went to an abnormal high school, but it never seemed that distinct to me — and I don’t especially like the way this movie defines people by the music they listen to, but I have as much appreciation for Higher Learning as I do for The Breakfast Club and Crash, each of which I consider to be more about using thin characters as vehicles for ideas rather than about real people and a narrative story. Happy Together - No, I’m not referring to the Wong Kar-Wai film. Rather, the 1989 movie starring Patrick Dempsey and Helen Slater. Maybe it’s just the fact that my only college roommate was a girl. But that was intentional, unlike the scenario of this movie. Prior to its relevance to my life, though, it was merely great for featuring Supergirl (and Billie Jean) topless. Pumpkin - After so many high school and college movies in which the handsome guy or pretty girl ultimately falls for the “ugly” guy/girl, it was quite an interesting concept to have the “ugly” one be a mentally handicapped, as well as socially handicapped, person. Road Trip - Thanks to Martin Lawrence and Raven-Symone, I now have to specify that I don’t mean College Road Trip. I also have to note that I think it would be a much better movie if Tom Green wasn’t in it. Also, compared to Old School, which was also written by Scot Armstrong and Todd Phillips and directed by Phillips, it’s got about a tenth of the laughs, if even that much. Surprisingly, however, Andy Dick is actually tolerable in Road Trip and not in Old School. Is it just me, or should DJ Qualls be doing better for himself these days? Originally posted on:SpoutBlog http://www.spout.com/blogs/cinemarian/archive/2008/5/13/28971.aspxPost By: CinemaRian
Post To: CinemaRian Blog
Post Date: 5/13/2008 7:50:37 PM
Body: The Freshman,deserves a long review, but it's a little hard to talk about. For one thing, normal critical procedures don't apply, the film is so dated its impossible to watch and get anything approaching the effect intended in 1925. However, the film is immensely valuable as a cultural document, and taken in that sense, shows us that American society actually has advance a great deal since the '20's. Although the film wants to be a lighthearted comedy, I found it a little disturbing. Harold Lamb (Lloyd, who looks too old for the part) is a small-town kid looking forward to going to college. In fact, he has a goal- he wants to be the most popular kid in all the University, and imitates a character in a movie he saw, The College Hero, to attain this desire. Unfortunately, heÃ?s so clueless that everyone just uses him for entertainment and money and mocks him behind his back. When he realizes what happens, the only person who likes him for who he is, Peggy (Jobyna Ralston), tell him that he must be himself. He decides that the only way he can make people like him is by scoring touchdowns at the big football game. And the problem is, the movie agrees with Harold. If there is every a movie that made me appreciate the counter-culture movement of the 60's, this is it. I found the pro-conformity stance in this movie offensive. It is one thing to mock young Harold Lamb for naive enough to believe the crap the media puts out, it's another thing entirely to mock him for simply failing to live up to it. It says something that a movie about a college freshman, no one is ever shown in class, doing homework, or studying. We are never even told what Harold is studying. Hey, college is not all about your grades, but those are rather integral too, you know, having a career, supporting yourself, contributing to the community- things no one in this movie ever cares about. After seeing this and Buster Keaton's College, I have to say that I am sick to death of the equivocation between sports aptitude and worth as a person. When Harold decides to let people like him for who is, Peggy should tell him that if he really is himself, some people will like him, some won't, and most will be indifferent. That is what life is like. Few of us can win friends with football stardom, and, really, what kind of friends would they be? The Freshman (1925)
]]>Tue, 13 May 2008 23:50:37 GMTCinemaRianCinemaRian Blog5/13/2008 7:50:37 PMThe Freshman,deserves a long review, but it's a little hard to talk about. For one thing, normal critical procedures don't apply, the film is so dated its impossible to watch and get anything approaching the effect intended in 1925. However, the film is immensely valuable as a cultural document, and taken in that sense, shows us that American society actually has advance a great deal since the '20's. Although the film wants to be a lighthearted comedy, I found it a little disturbing. Harold Lamb (Lloyd, who looks too old for the part) is a small-town kid looking forward to going to college. In fact, he has a goal- he wants to be the most popular kid in all the University, and imitates a character in a movie he saw, The College Hero, to attain this desire. Unfortunately, he&Atilde;?s so clueless that everyone just uses him for entertainment and money and mocks him behind his back. When he realizes what happens, the only person who likes him for who he is, Peggy (Jobyna Ralston), tell him that he must be himself. He decides that the only way he can make people like him is by scoring touchdowns at the big football game. And the problem is, the movie agrees with Harold. If there is every a movie that made me appreciate the counter-culture movement of the 60's, this is it. I found the pro-conformity stance in this movie offensive. It is one thing to mock young Harold Lamb for naive enough to believe the crap the media puts out, it's another thing entirely to mock him for simply failing to live up to it. It says something that a movie about a college freshman, no one is ever shown in class, doing homework, or studying. We are never even told what Harold is studying. Hey, college is not all about your grades, but those are rather integral too, you know, having a career, supporting yourself, contributing to the community- things no one in this movie ever cares about. After seeing this and Buster Keaton's College, I have to say that I am sick to death of the equivocation between sports aptitude and worth as a person. When Harold decides to let people like him for who is, Peggy should tell him that if he really is himself, some people will like him, some won't, and most will be indifferent. That is what life is like. Few of us can win friends with football stardom, and, really, what kind of friends would they be? The Freshman (1925) http://www.spout.com/blogs/spoutblog/archive/2007/12/18/22918.aspxPost By: SpoutBlog
Post To: SpoutBlog on spout.com
Post Date: 12/18/2007 12:01:06 PM
Body: Leave it to George Clooney to make a football movie that actually looks good to people like me. And by people like me, I mean people with no interest in American football whatsoever (I attend Super Bowl parties exclusively for the 7-layer dip). Yahoo! is hosting the trailer for Leatherheads, Clooney’s much-anticipated directorial follow-up to Good Night, and Good Luck, and the romantic sports comedy looks like the most appealing football flick — particularly for women and also guys like me — ever produced. Part of the appeal for me, though, is those old uniforms, which bring me back (cinematicaly — I’m not that old) to the football fields of Horse Feathers, Harold Lloyd’s The Freshman and that famous still of Ronald Reagan from Knute Rockne All American. Then, of course, there’s the appeal of Clooney in old-timey clothes, ala O Brother Where Art Thou? Considering how much Clooney resembles Cary Grant in both appearance and acting style, it’s no wonder that I prefer him in stories that take him back to periods in which Grant was a big star. Okay, so Leatherheads is actually set in the 1920s, before Grant and his silly accent made it to the big screen, but I’m willing to ignore that little historical inaccuracy (just as the Coen Bros. ignored a lot of historical fact with O’ Brother). Had sound films come about earlier than they had, Cary Grant could have been wooed by Hollywood much sooner than he was. (more…) Originally posted on:SpoutBlog
]]>Tue, 18 Dec 2007 17:01:06 GMTSpoutBlogSpoutBlog on spout.com12/18/2007 12:01:06 PM Leave it to George Clooney to make a football movie that actually looks good to people like me. And by people like me, I mean people with no interest in American football whatsoever (I attend Super Bowl parties exclusively for the 7-layer dip). Yahoo! is hosting the trailer for Leatherheads, Clooney’s much-anticipated directorial follow-up to Good Night, and Good Luck, and the romantic sports comedy looks like the most appealing football flick — particularly for women and also guys like me — ever produced. Part of the appeal for me, though, is those old uniforms, which bring me back (cinematicaly — I’m not that old) to the football fields of Horse Feathers, Harold Lloyd’s The Freshman and that famous still of Ronald Reagan from Knute Rockne All American. Then, of course, there’s the appeal of Clooney in old-timey clothes, ala O Brother Where Art Thou? Considering how much Clooney resembles Cary Grant in both appearance and acting style, it’s no wonder that I prefer him in stories that take him back to periods in which Grant was a big star. Okay, so Leatherheads is actually set in the 1920s, before Grant and his silly accent made it to the big screen, but I’m willing to ignore that little historical inaccuracy (just as the Coen Bros. ignored a lot of historical fact with O’ Brother). Had sound films come about earlier than they had, Cary Grant could have been wooed by Hollywood much sooner than he was. (more…) Originally posted on:SpoutBlog http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/Classic/MemberTagFilms.aspxClassic
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