College sent Keaton to university, where a bookish student tried to become an athlete to win the girl he loved.
College was released in 1927, directed by Keaton and James W. Horne. Keaton played Ronald, a brilliant student who gave a graduation speech against athletics, only to lose the girl he loved, Mary, played by Anne Cornwall, to a sportsman. Ronald followed Mary to college and tried every sport, from baseball to track, in an effort to win her back.
The film’s comedy came from Ronald’s earnest failure at sport, until the final sequence, in which he used every skill he had learned, in a frantic chase to rescue Mary from another man. The athletic sequences, including a pole vault and a hurdles race, showed Keaton’s own physical skill, even as his character struggled.
College was a lighter film than The General, made the previous year, but it was popular and it showed Keaton’s range. It remains a charming example of his work, in which a small, determined hero won by persistence rather than by strength.