College

College (1927) is a silent Buster Keaton comedy you can watch online on iFILM. Ronald graduates top of his class and looks down on athletics, but the girl he wants hands him an ultimatum: drop the books and pick up a ball, or stay away.

So the bookworm who has never swung a bat signs up for every sport on campus at once. Baseball, rowing, the high jump, the shot put — Ronald flubs each one with heroic commitment, right up to a climactic dash that turns into an obstacle course to rescue the girl. Keaton does the stunts himself, no doubles and almost no editing tricks; the man's own body is the special effect. Anne Cornwall plays the woman this whole athletic disaster is staged to win.

Keaton co-directed with James W. Horne straight after The General, and the whole thing runs barely over an hour with not a slack scene in it. If you think silent film means dusty and slow, College fixes that idea inside ten minutes — the gags land sharper than a lot of modern comedy. Stream College (1927) online on iFILM.