College Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

College Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 10, 2020

Note: This version of this film is available as part of The Buster Keaton Collection: Volume 4.

A "little" thing like a global pandemic may have momentarily put the kibosh on a more regular release schedule, but Cohen Film Collection is back now after more than a year with its fourth installment of Buster Keaton classics, after having offered fans The Buster Keaton Collection: Volume 1 (which included The General and Steamboat Bill, Jr.), The Buster Keaton Collection: Volume 2 (which included Sherlock Jr. and The Navigator), and The Buster Keaton Collection: Volume 3 (which included Seven Chances and Battling Butler). As with the previous volumes, this Cohen release is a “two-fer”, and it also boasts new restorations and new scores, along with what might be at least a bit of an improvement in the supplements category.

As with all of the other Keaton greats that Cohen has thus far resurrected for this series of new releases, College has had a previous release on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino. For those wanting a plot summary, I refer you to Casey Broadwater's College Blu-ray review of the Kino release. Casey's review is also a good source for screenshot comparisons between the two versions.

College Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

College is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Cohen Film Collection, an imprint of Cohen Media Group, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.34:1. This release doesn't even feature the typical "minimalist" insert booklet from Cohen that only very rarely provides technical information in any case, but this presentation starts with a series of text cards which state:

The Keaton Project was launched in 2015 by Cineteca di Bologna and the Cohen Film Collection to restore all of the films made by Buster Keaton between 1920 and 1928.

For the restoration of College, nine elements were carefully inspected and analyzed. Five of them - from the Cohen Film Collection deposited in Columbus and at the CNC in France - were digitized and compared.

Based on their photographic quality and completeness, two elements - both preserved in Columbus - were selected for restoration: a third generation safety dupe positive and second generation safety dupe negative. Whereas the former served as main elements and included the original main element and end titles as well as all intertitles, the latter was used to replace several sections of the dupe positive showing visible printed chemical decay.

Restoration works were carried out at L'Immagine Ritrovata laboratory and completed in September 2018.

While I'm scoring this at the same 4.0 level I gave to Go West's video component, this is probably the "dupier" looking of the two presentations on this disc. A bit fuzzier than its counterpart, and with blacks that occasionally are crushed (and this generally looks a bit darker to me than the Kino), this still has some nice detail levels in things like fabrics and even backgrounds. While this doesn't have the same levels of scratches that Go West does, there are still noticeable signs of age related wear and tear that can float through the frame, often in the form of white specks and the like. Grain is rather gritty throughout the presentation, but resolves naturally. Probably one of the biggest differences between this release and the Kino version is that the kind of strange white line that runs horizontally across the image toward the bottom of the frame that Casey noted in his College Blu-ray review isn't in evidence here.

College Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

College features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track that offers what is kind of oddly billed as a "musical score compiled by Rodney Sauer". It's once again on the chamber music side of things, as was the case with Go West, although in this case on a perhaps even smaller aural canvas, utilizing piano and violin. The sound is bright without being brash and there is no damage or distortion of any kind.

College Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

As with previous releases in this still nascent series, this volume of Keaton is presented on one disc, with a slate of supplements that is at least incrementally better than some that have graced previous volumes in this series. This may be a tacet recognition that many of the Kino Lorber releases came packed with extra features.

• Go West Re-release Trailer (1080p; 1:00)


• College Re-release Trailer (1080p; 00:57)


• Buster Keaton, Screenwriter (1080p; 59:19) is a fantastically interesting audio recording of Keaton developing a script idea which he intends to pitch to (get ready) Wagon Train.


• Go West (1080p; 12:01) is the 1923 short.

College Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

College is often enormously funny, even if it is perhaps predictably rote in setting Keaton loose to wreak havoc in an athletic setting. The film has more than its fair share of great sight gags, though, and Keaton once again manages to create a completely winning "loser" of a character. Once again as with Go West, limitations in the source elements can offer occasional hurdles in the video department, but audio is fine. Recommended.