Milky Way, The General and College (1936)

Comedy set of three

In Milky Way Harold Lloyd, Adolphe Menjou, Helen Mack, William Gargan In this superb compendium of gags flowing from his character of a milkman who innocently decks the champion during a brawl, the great Harold Lloyd amply proves why he was such a success. Lloyd was a master comic craftsman and this is the finest of his few talking films. 1936, 83 minutes, B&W

In College Buster Keaton goes back to school and stages a hilarious send-up of university life in College. Keaton stars as Ronald, an idealistic freshman who attends Clayton College in pursuit of higher learning, but finds himself instead embroiled in a war of athletics as he fights for the heart of his beloved coed, Mary (Anne Cornwall).

More than he had in any other feature, Keaton stretched the boundaries of solo physical comedy. In a series of unforgettable vignettes, stone-faced Ronald tries his hand as a baseball player, soda jerk, waiter, coxswain, and track star, perfomring each task with a steady determination but with consistently disastrous results. These scenes are epecially amazing because in demonstrating Ronald’s athletic inadequacies, Keaton reveals a surprising degree of physical prowess and finesse, particularly during the film’s exhilarating climax.

1927, silent with English intertitles, B&W, 130 minutes