Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		5.0
Overall		5.0

The Freshman Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov March 20, 2014

Fred C. Newmeyer and Sam Taylor's "The Freshman" (1925) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the disc include newly restored versions Harold Lloyd's silent short films "The Marathon" (1919), "An Eastern Westerner" (1920), and "High and Dizzy" (1920); filmed conversation between film historian Kevin Brownlow and director and archivist Richard Correll; audio commentary featuring film historian Richard Bann, director and film archivist Richard Correll, and film critic Leonard Maltin; visual essay by John Bengston; and a lot more. The release also arrives with an illustrated booklet featuring Stephen Winer's essay "Speedy Saves the Day! A Harold Lamb Adventure!". With English intertitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

Speedy

The great Harold Lloyd is Speedy, an ambitious young man who arrives at Tate University with one thing on his mind – to become popular as quickly as possible. He immediately makes an impression when he offers to buy ice cream for everyone, but also becomes an easy target for the rich and bored upperclassmen.

While trying to fit in, Speedy meets Chet Trask (James Anderson), the most popular guy on campus. Chet is captain of the football team and therefore has the unique power to make or break a party. Hugely impressed by his star status, Speedy immediately decides to try out for the football. The coach (Pat Harmon) likes Speedy’s enthusiasm and tells him that he is going to be a great substitute, but his real intention is to use him as a water boy. Enormously pleased with the progress he has made, Speedy vows not to disappoint when his name is called.

Meanwhile, a beautiful but poor girl named Peggy (Jobyna Ralston) falls madly in love with Speedy. Working as a cleaning lady in the boarding house where Speedy lives, Peggy sees daily how he is mocked by everyone and decides to tell him that he has become popular for all the wrong reasons. During a party hosted by Speedy, Peggy gets the chance to talk to the man she loves after he confronts a local bully who has been harassing her.

The film ends with the Big Game in which Tate University faces its mighty arch-rival Union State. With only a few minutes left to go, Tate University must score to win the game. Speedy is also on the field, next to his coach, waiting patiently for his name to be called.

Arguably Lloyd’s best film, The Freshman moves very quickly and with energy that rivals that of Charlie Chaplin’s greatest films. Predictably, the best gags feature Lloyd, but there are plenty of sequences where the supporting actors are given an opportunity to impress.

Technically, The Freshman isn’t as inventive as Safety Last!, but the solid editing and on-location shooting confirm that it was a much more ambitious project. Also, the structure of the narrative and the manner in which the different gags are brought together make the film look far better polished.

Something else worth mentioning is that in The Freshman there is a greater number of close-ups. For example, there are a variety of casual facial expressions which one would typically expect to see in vastly different dramatic or documentary films. (Some of the footage from the Big Game was actually shot during a real football game at Memorial Stadium in Berkeley). Naturally, there is a wider range of emotions that are captured by the camera.

The Freshman was released in 1925, the same year Chaplin’s The Gold Rush premiered, and became Lloyd’s biggest box-office hit (it was that year's third biggest box-office hit). Lloyd and his work also became enormously popular overseas. The great Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu, for example, was a great admirer of Lloyd and had a poster of him on the sets of many of his films.

Criterion’s presentation of UCLA Film & Television Archive’s restoration of The Freshman is accompanied by a brand new orchestral score by Carl Davis. Also included with The Freshman are new restorations of Lloyd’s short films An Eastern Westerner and High and Dizzy (1920), both with new orchestral scores by Davis, as well as The Marathon (1919), with a new piano score by Gabriel Thibaudeau.

Note: In 1990, The Freshman was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.

The Freshman Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.33:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Fred C. Newmeyer and Sam Taylor's The Freshman (1925) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion.

The following text appears inside the booklet provided with this Blu-ray release:

"This new digital transfer was created in 4K resolution on a Northlight film scanner from the UCLA Film & Television Archive's 1998 restoration negative. The UCLA restoration, supervised by preservation officer Robert Gitt and funded by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, utilized footage from the both the foreign release version, entitled College Days, and the domestic release version. Footage from the original camera negative of the foreign version, which was shot by a second camera, from a slightly different angle, makes up about 60 percent of the UCLA restoration; it was used because it was sharper and more sparkling than the equivalent footage available from the domestic version, which survived only through duplicate elements of overall lesser quality. Tinting was facilitated by following directions printed on leaders of the original nitrate materials. Further restoration was performed for this release by the Criterion Collection in collaboration with L'Immagine Ritrovata in Bologna, Italy. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, and warps were manually removed using MTI's DRS and Diamond, while Digital Vision's Phoenix was used for small dirt, grain, noise management, jitter, and flicker.

Transfer supervisors: Richard Correll, Lee Kline, Suzanne Lloyd.
Colorist: Sue Gates/Modern VideoFilm, Burbank, CA."

Recently restored and reconstructed, The Freshman looks very impressive on Blu-ray. Despite the fact that footage from different sources was used clarity and sharpness are consistently very pleasing. Contrast levels also remain stable during transitions between the black and white footage and the tinted footage. The overwhelming majority of close-ups boast excellent depth. In fact, some look so impressive that it is hard to believe that they are from a nearly 90-year-old silent film. The greatest improvements, however, are in the area of image stability -- edge flicker, jitter, and wobbling have been effectively addressed during the restoration process. There are no traces of compromising degraining or sharpening corrections. Scratches, debris, flecks, damage marks, and stains have been removed as best possible while respecting the integrity of the film. Finally, the encoding and compression are excellent. (This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).

Also included on Criterion's Blu-ray release are newly restored versions of three of Harold Lloyd's silent short films: The Marathon (1919), An Eastern Westerner (1920), and High and Dizzy (1920). Sreencaptures from these short films are included with our review and appear in the following order:

1. Screencaptures #21-23: The Marathon. (14 min, 1080i/Dolby Digital 2.0).
2. Screencaptures #24-27: An Eastern Westerner (28 min, 1080i/Dolby Digital 2.0).
3. Screencaptures #28-30: High and Dizzy (28 min, 1080i/Dolby Digital 2.0).

The Freshman Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio audio track on this Blu-ray release: LPCM 2.0. The three short films included on this release arrive with Dolby Digital 2.0 tracks.

Carl Davis' new score sounds fantastic. There is an outstanding balance between the strings and the woodwinds while the brass section is bright and strong but not overpowering. The individual solos are exceptionally crisp and clear. There is a good range of nuanced dynamics (compare the violins and the clarinet solos) that are in sync with the film's period atmosphere. For the record, there are no audio dropouts or other anomalies to report in this review.

The Freshman Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Kevin Brownlow and Richard Correll - in this filmed conversation, film historian Kevin Brownlow and Richard Correll, a director and Harold Lloyd's longtime archivist, discuss the life and legacy of the great actor, the production history of The Freshman, how key sequences from the film were shot (there is plenty of interesting information about the filming of the football game in California and the Fall Frolic), some of the key differences and similarities between Harold Lloyd, Charlie Chaplin, and Buster Keaton, etc. The conversation was filmed at the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts in 2013. In English, not subtitled. (40 min, 1080p).

• Harold Lloyd's Funny Side of Life - presented here is an archival on-camera introduction to The Freshman by Harold Lloyd, which was created for a theatrical program titled Harold Lloyd's Funny Side of Life. The program, which contained clips from Harold Lloyd's most popular films, is also featured here. In English, not subtitled. (30 min, 1080p).

• Harold Lloyd: Big Man on Campus - in this visual essay, John Bengston, author of Silent Visions: Discovering Early Hollywood and New York Through the Films of Harold Lloyd, identifies many of the key locations used for the college and football scenes in The Freshman and discusses select scenes and shots that did not make it to the final cut of the film. Included with the essay are rare behind-the-scenes stills from Harold Lloyd's archive. In English, not subtitled. (17 min, 1080p).

• Delta Kappa Alpha Tribute - founded at the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts, the Delta Kappa Alpha professional cinema fraternity was renowned in Hollywood during the sixties and seventies for its banquets honoring pioneers of cinema. On January 6, 1963, the organization honored silent stars Harold Lloyd and Mary Pickford in celebration of its twenty-fifth anniversary. Presented here is a clip from the event in which Harold Lloyd is introduced by Gloria Swanson and takes the stage to discuss his career with comedian Steve Allen, director Delmer Davies (3:10 to Yuma, Jubal), and actor Jack Lemmon. In English, not subtitled. (30 min, 1080p).

• What's My Line? - a segment from an episode of the CBS television show What's My Line? in which Harold Lloyd promoted a theatrical rerelease of The Freshman. The episode aired on April 26, 1953. In English, not subtitled. (7 min, 1080p).

• Short Films - newly restored versions of three of Harold Lloyd's silent short films:
  
  1. The Marathon (1919), directed by Alfred J. Goulding, and starring Harold Lloyd, Harry Pollard, and Bebe Daniels. Presented with a new piano score composed and performed by Gabriel Thibaudeau. (14 min, 1080i).
  
  2. An Eastern Westerner (1920), directed by Hal Roach, and starring Harold Lloyd, Mildred Davis, and Noah Young. Presented with a new score composed and conducted by Carl Davis. (28 min, 1080i).
  
  3. High and Dizzy (1920), directed by Hal Roach, and starring Harold Lloyd, Roy Brooks, Mildred Davis, and Wallace Howe. Presented with a new score composed and conducted by Carl Davis. (28 min, 1080i).

• Audio Commentary - this audio commentary features film historian Richard Bann, director and film archivist Richard Correll, and film critic Leonard Maltin. It was recorded in 2005.

• Booklet - an illustrated booklet featuring Stephen Winer's essay "Speedy Saves the Day! A Harold Lamb Adventure!". (Mr. Winer is one of the original writers for Late Night with David Letterman).

The Freshman Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I have nothing but great things to say about this terrific Blu-ray release of The Freshman, Harold Lloyd's biggest box-office hit. Restored and reconstructed, and accompanied by a brand new orchestral score by Carl Davis, the film looks sensational on Blu-ray. Also included on this release are newly restored versions of three of Harold Lloyd's silent short films, which I thought were just as hilarious as The Freshman. Buy with confidence, folks. So far, this is one of the year's very best releases. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.