College

Released Jul 30, 1927

1h 5m

Comedy

List

91%

22 Reviews

Tomatometer

72%

1,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

Brilliant in his studies and dismissive of athletics, Ronald (Buster Keaton) finishes high school at the top of his class. But in college his uptight attitude doesn't win him any points with his sports-loving classmates, and pretty coed Mary (Anne Cornwall) ignores him in favor of brutish jock Jeff (Harold Goodwin). Hoping to impress Mary, Ronald makes a buffoon of himself at every sport imaginable, usually at Jeff's hand. But Ronald gets a final shot at glory in a big rowing race.

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Chris M

Plot wise there isn't much here. But each of the sports he tries and fails at is a good example of the kind of slapstick genius Buster Keaton was. It can drag a lot too and has some mild character issues. But overall, it's a classic that should be know farther than the crowd of film buffs that watch silent movies.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

04/04/23

Full Review

bryce b

i havent even seen the movie and i want to put the directer in a fucking concentration camp, the trailer actually made me want to vomit how bad it was.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

08/24/22

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Audience Member

The best comedy movie ever made!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/26/23

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bill t

Fairly lightweight Keaton movie here as he plays a high school graduate (!!!) wanting to still impress the girl of his dreams. So he goes to the same college as her. Problem is, she wants a jock. So Keaton does the usual collage of gags failing at sports. Amusing, but certainly not classic.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Critics don't seem to think this was one of the Keaton's bests (88% on rotten tomatoes at the time of writing this), but I thought it was great. He plays a teacher's pet that clumsily tries to become an athlete. The irony is that Buster Keaton is actually one of the greatest athletes ever. With all his crazy stunts, I'm beginning to think he is unbreakable. An iconic little man, he proves that it's not about the size of the dog in the fight, but rather the fight in the dog.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/11/23

Full Review

Audience Member

While certainly not among Keaton's very best films, this one's consistently funny. Keaton plays a bookworm who tries to take up college sports to impress a girl. Most of the film centers on his increasingly disastrous attempts to play a succession of sports. There are also a few sequences where Keaton tries to hold down part time jobs, including one where he dons black face to pose as a "colored waiter".

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/01/23

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James W. Horne

Director

Buster Keaton

A Son

Anne Cornwall

The Girl

Flora Bramley

Her Friend

Harold Goodwin

A Rival

Grant Withers

Jeff's Friend

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Michael Phillips

Chicago Tribune

The movie is worth seeing for a lot of reasons, one of them being the weirdly elegant pratfall Keaton takes on the baseball diamond when he gets clipped by an opposing player sliding into third.

Rated: 3.5/4

Apr 16, 2015

Full Review

Tom Milne

Time Out

Minor Keaton but major almost any other comedian.

Jun 24, 2006

Full Review

Mordaunt Hall

New York Times

Keaton himself strives to be funny, but his actions are so frightfully absurd that it strikes one that the character he plays never ought to be out of an asylum.

Rated: 2/5

Mar 25, 2006

Full Review

Pare Lorentz

Judge

There are so many good things about Buster Keaton’s romantic comedy, College, that the only thing I can say is: see it. Not only is Keaton uproariously funny in this new picture, but you will find the picture is intelligently made.

Dec 27, 2023

Full Review

Yasser Medina

Cinefilia

This is a entertaining comedy that, in my opinion, hits the high point of fun in the sports stunts that demonstrate Keaton's expertise for the craziest slapstick. [Full review in Spanish]

Rated: 7/10

Dec 13, 2022

Full Review

Matt Brunson

Film Frenzy

College is no match for Harold Lloyd's similarly themed 1925 masterpiece The Freshman, but it contains no small measure of uproarious sequences.

Rated: 3/4

Jan 24, 2021

Full Review

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Synopsis

Brilliant in his studies and dismissive of athletics, Ronald (Buster Keaton) finishes high school at the top of his class. But in college his uptight attitude doesn't win him any points with his sports-loving classmates, and pretty coed Mary (Anne Cornwall) ignores him in favor of brutish jock Jeff (Harold Goodwin). Hoping to impress Mary, Ronald makes a buffoon of himself at every sport imaginable, usually at Jeff's hand. But Ronald gets a final shot at glory in a big rowing race.

Director: James W. Horne
Distributor: United Artists
Production Co: Joseph M. Schenck Productions
Genre: Comedy
Release Date (Theaters): Jul 30, 1927, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Jul 1, 2016
Runtime: 1h 5m

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