Sunday, January 3, 2010

Harold Lloyd vs. Buster Keaton

I've recommended Harold Lloyd's movie The Freshman before; the picture at left is from the movie and has Lloyd with costar Jobyna Ralston. It's airing again as part of TCM's Silent Sunday Nights feature, tonight at midnight ET. However, there's another silent movie that's surprisingly similar to The Freshman: Buster Keaton's College, which is the second movie in tonight's silent double feature, airing at 1:30 AM ET. It has the same theme, that of an academic college student (in this case, Keaton), trying to win the heart of a girl by becoming a jock, only to be utterly incompetent at sports. I personally prefer The Freshman to College, and think that Keaton made several much superior movies in his silent film career (notably Steamboat Bill, Jr. and The General). However, College is entertaining enough in its own right, and perfectly clean, so suitable for the family as long as the young ones won't be bored by silent movies.

Both The Freshman and College have made their way to DVD.

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