Silent Film Review: "The Freshman"

Silent Film Review: “The Freshman”

Cassandra Augstein

For The Clock

“I’m just a regular fellow - step right up and call me Speedy” - Harold Lamb, a.k.a The Freshman.

On Sept. 22, The Flying Monkey Movie House and Performance Center showed “The Freshman”, a silent film starring Harold Lloyd that premiered in 1925. It’s the story of a young man, Harold Lamb, going off to his very first year of study at Tate College.

Even though “The Freshman” is a silent film, the theater was anything but quiet. Jeff Rapsis, a lover of music and films from the past, played an improvised piano accompaniment for the movie.

“The Freshman” is a heartwarming story about the need to truly be yourself and not care what others think. It was groundbreaking at the time of its release. It was a comedy over an hour long, which was unheard of at the time.

In the film, Harold Lamb sees a movie called “The College Hero”, and through it, learns that the best way into people’s hearts is through being popular and being the star football player. He decides to model himself after the lead in “The College Hero” in the hope of becoming just like Chet Trask, the most popular guy at Tate College and the captain of the football team the year before Harold’s freshman year.

When Harold arrives on campus, it is apparent that he will not be the most popular guy in school. The first thing he did was introduced himself with this silly little jig he learned from the movie. He becomes the laughing stock of the school, which he doesn’t realize until the very end. Even when the truth becomes clear to him, that he is just the water boy of the football team, and no one actually thinks he is cool, he still tries to be a hero.

In the football team’s game against Union State, so many players got sacked that Harold was able to convince the coach to let him play the last few minutes. Low and behold, Harold scored the winning touchdown. Suddenly he was “The Man!” Once Harold embraced who he was, all was right with the world.

It is truly amazing how a story 91 years old still models the same struggle of young people today, such as how to fit in and what customs and traditions to hold. Harold modeled himself after a character in a movie, and nowadays movies are even bigger and more accessible.

People today do the same thing. They see someone or something in a movie, which is viewed as cool in the movie, and they adopt and do it themselves. Sometimes that may work, but it is usually best to be yourself, and not do something just because others view it as cool.

In a short but sweet interview with accompanist Jeff Rapsis, he said “Music brings [the film] to life for the audience.”

Rapsis’ love for these movies started when he was studying piano in junior high. Ten years ago, when he discovered he could combine music and film, it was quite an epiphany. “This is my therapy,” he said. “It keeps me sane.”

The next film at The Flying Monkey is “Woman in the Moon” (1929), showing on Oct. 13. Visit http://www.flyingmonkeynh.com for more information.