Year: 1925
Director: Fred Newmeyer
Country: US
Language: English
Harold Lloyd began his film career imitating the most popular fictional character at the time; Charles Chaplin's Tramp. As he matured as an actor, these mild imitations died down and he had created his own "glasses" character after the unique horn rimmed glasses that he wore. Once his own popularity spiked fans of Lloyd would become fascinated in trying to look like him. The hero of The Freshman is also greatly influenced by popular culture and wishes to look like his icon from the fictional movie The College Hero.
In The Freshman Lloyd plays a a nerdy college student will do anything to become popular on campus.
Upon entering feature length films in 1921 Lloyd had great desire to perfect his character and thus starred in pictures that best suited him. Often these films had the same plot; a young man leaves home in an attempt to enter and succeed in society at large. The formula worked and by 1925 there were few silent film comedians with a more enduring popularity than Harold Lloyd. This particular film was his most financially successful, albeit overtime Safety Last! appears to be his most remembered.
Upon watching the film I found a stark difference between how Charles Chaplin, another silent icon, and Harold Lloyd view society. Chaplin sees society as absurd and his characters try hard not to fit in (see: Modern Times) whereas Lloyd's entire goal is to be part of this society. Lloyd has a more "American" spirit about him, as the idea that "if you try hard you will be successful" permeates throughout his filmography.
The Freshman is a fine, but dated, comedy that will still have audiences chuckling even if the picture is 90+ years old. I appreciate that it doesn't try to elicit cheap slapstick laughs, rather the film is more concerned with developing its character arc. Even if you're more of a Chaplin "at odds with society" fan you'll still be amused by Lloyd's work.
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