Tired and tiresome college football is back on the agenda in Walter Lang's The College Hero (1927). Columbia's silents have a bad reputation. If this effort is anything to go by, it's a poor repute that's certainly well deserved. In fact, I find it a little hard to decide which was the more enervating – the acting, the cornball writing or the less than efficient direction. I think acting wins. Rex Lease gives a really dreadful performance. He makes his football-playing student so charmless, we wonder why on earth the other characters – least of all the fairly personable Bobby Agnew – play up to him. The much vaunted Pauline Garon of The Painted Flapper, Passionate Youth, Eager Lips, etc. also proves most disappointing in the flesh. Admittedly, she looks great in her still photos, but on screen she is somewhat less than the nubile young lady our hero deserves. On the other hand, Joan Standing, who is supposed to play a "dog", and whom photographer Ted Tetzlaff goes out of his way to present warts and all, is actually quite attractive. Last and by no means least, there's Ben Turpin. True, Ben's material is wafer thin, but Ben manages to spin it out and make the worst of it.
2 Reviews
Pretty Pauline Garon
kidboots5 July 2015
Warning: Spoilers
With Churchill Ross' name in the cast this may well have conjured up Universal's "Collegian" series but it's a feature from Columbia. Pauline Garon, a Wampas Baby star of 1923, had caught Cecil B. De Mille's eye but from the mid twenties was ensconced in flapper roles with titles like "Passionate Youth" and "Satan in Sables". Because her first language was French, whenever there was a French language version made of a popular talkie (studios did that in the early sound days) she had work but when those jobs dried up all she could find were bits.
Two college chums, Jim Halloran (Rex Lease, soon to be a cowboy staple in the talkies), a bragger and "Happy" (Robert Agnew), an all round good guy become rivals in love - what an amazingly unusual twist on the typically college football movie (she says sarcastically)!! They didn't start out as friends - Halloran and his mates gang up on fresher "Happy" and when Jim realises he will have to share a room - that is the living end!! - but after a friendly fight, within minutes they are best buddies!!
Also new to college is the lovely Vivian (Pauline Garon and don't believe the other reviewer, she is absolutely beautiful!!) - she has already met "Happy" through a prank pulled on her by some catty college flappers. She is told to sit in "Happy"'s clapped out jalopy if she wants to get to the girl's dormitory!! Life proves a wild buggy ride as Vivian barely reaches her destination in one piece. "What were you before you became a chauffeur?" "A life-saver", "What flavour?"!! "Happy" is smitten with Vivian's snappy comeback but she is less than impressed!!
On the night of the big dance (every college movie has one), nerdy Sampson Saunders (Ross) begs the boss to be his sister's date but only "Happy" volunteers and - you guessed it, the college swat's sister is none other than the ravishing Vivian. Of course Halloran soon comes buzzing around and cheekily Vivian introduces him to her room-mate Nellie, a gangly girl who he soon wants to "give the air to"!! Time passes, they are now members of the Varsity Football team and both in love with the same girl. On the eve of the "big game" (every college movie has one of these as well), Halloran overhears some catty comments about Vivian to the effect that she is a "college hero" lover and whoever is the hero of the game is the one who will win her heart!! He then takes steps to put "Happy" out of the big game by tripping him up as he is running towards the goal posts and funnily enough, it is Nellie who is there to console - she saw what Jim did but realizes he is truly sorry.
Jim, who now has all the hopes of the big game riding on his shoulders, goes missing!! Will he be back in time?? - hey, this is a college movie from the late 1920s, of course he will. Ben Turpin is on hand to provide a few funny moments including a "crazy Carmen" dance - just enough time to prove that comedy had come a long way in sophistication since Ben's hey day!!
Two college chums, Jim Halloran (Rex Lease, soon to be a cowboy staple in the talkies), a bragger and "Happy" (Robert Agnew), an all round good guy become rivals in love - what an amazingly unusual twist on the typically college football movie (she says sarcastically)!! They didn't start out as friends - Halloran and his mates gang up on fresher "Happy" and when Jim realises he will have to share a room - that is the living end!! - but after a friendly fight, within minutes they are best buddies!!
Also new to college is the lovely Vivian (Pauline Garon and don't believe the other reviewer, she is absolutely beautiful!!) - she has already met "Happy" through a prank pulled on her by some catty college flappers. She is told to sit in "Happy"'s clapped out jalopy if she wants to get to the girl's dormitory!! Life proves a wild buggy ride as Vivian barely reaches her destination in one piece. "What were you before you became a chauffeur?" "A life-saver", "What flavour?"!! "Happy" is smitten with Vivian's snappy comeback but she is less than impressed!!
On the night of the big dance (every college movie has one), nerdy Sampson Saunders (Ross) begs the boss to be his sister's date but only "Happy" volunteers and - you guessed it, the college swat's sister is none other than the ravishing Vivian. Of course Halloran soon comes buzzing around and cheekily Vivian introduces him to her room-mate Nellie, a gangly girl who he soon wants to "give the air to"!! Time passes, they are now members of the Varsity Football team and both in love with the same girl. On the eve of the "big game" (every college movie has one of these as well), Halloran overhears some catty comments about Vivian to the effect that she is a "college hero" lover and whoever is the hero of the game is the one who will win her heart!! He then takes steps to put "Happy" out of the big game by tripping him up as he is running towards the goal posts and funnily enough, it is Nellie who is there to console - she saw what Jim did but realizes he is truly sorry.
Jim, who now has all the hopes of the big game riding on his shoulders, goes missing!! Will he be back in time?? - hey, this is a college movie from the late 1920s, of course he will. Ben Turpin is on hand to provide a few funny moments including a "crazy Carmen" dance - just enough time to prove that comedy had come a long way in sophistication since Ben's hey day!!
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