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The Sophomore

  • 1929
  • Passed
  • 1h 13m
IMDb RATING
5.7/10
47
YOUR RATING
Sally O'Neil and Eddie Quillan in The Sophomore (1929)
ComedyRomance

Add a plot in your language

  • Director
    • Leo McCarey
  • Writers
    • Corey Ford
    • T.H. Wenning
    • Joseph F. Poland
  • Stars
    • Eddie Quillan
    • Sally O'Neil
    • Stanley Smith
  • See production, box office & company info
  • IMDb RATING
    5.7/10
    47
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Leo McCarey
    • Writers
      • Corey Ford
      • T.H. Wenning
      • Joseph F. Poland
    • Stars
      • Eddie Quillan
      • Sally O'Neil
      • Stanley Smith
    • 3User reviews
    • 1Critic review
  • See production, box office & company info
  • See more at IMDbPro
  • Photos12

    Sally O'Neil in The Sophomore (1929)
    Brooks Benedict, Russell Gleason, Spec O'Donnell, Eddie Quillan, and Stanley Smith in The Sophomore (1929)
    Jeanette Loff and Eddie Quillan in The Sophomore (1929)
    Sally O'Neil in The Sophomore (1929)
    Sally O'Neil and Eddie Quillan in The Sophomore (1929)
    Sally O'Neil and Eddie Quillan in The Sophomore (1929)
    Jimmy Aldine in The Sophomore (1929)
    Jeanette Loff, Sally O'Neil, and Eddie Quillan in The Sophomore (1929)
    Sally O'Neil, Eddie Quillan, and Stanley Smith in The Sophomore (1929)
    Sally O'Neil and Eddie Quillan in The Sophomore (1929)
    Jeanette Loff and Eddie Quillan in The Sophomore (1929)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Eddie Quillan
    Eddie Quillan
    • Joe Collins
    Sally O'Neil
    Sally O'Neil
    • Margie Callahan
    Stanley Smith
    Stanley Smith
    • Tom Weck
    Jeanette Loff
    Jeanette Loff
    • Barbara Lange
    Russell Gleason
    Russell Gleason
    • Dutch
    Sarah Padden
    Sarah Padden
    • Mrs. Collins
    Brooks Benedict
    Brooks Benedict
    • Dan Willis
    Spec O'Donnell
    Spec O'Donnell
    • Joe's Nephew
    Walter O'Keefe
    Walter O'Keefe
    • Gabriel McAfee - Radio Announcer
    Jimmy Aldine
    Jimmy Aldine
    • Student
    • (uncredited)
    Lew Ayres
    Lew Ayres
    • Sophomore Fraternity Brother
    • (uncredited)
    Ray Cooke
    Ray Cooke
    • Sophomore Fraternity Brother
    • (uncredited)
    Stuart Erwin
    Stuart Erwin
    • Radio Broadcast Technician
    • (uncredited)
    Dorothy Granger
    Dorothy Granger
    • Co-Ed
    • (uncredited)
    Marian Marsh
    Marian Marsh
    • Co-Ed
    • (uncredited)
    Grady Sutton
    Grady Sutton
    • Cupie - Freshman Fraternity Brother
    • (uncredited)
    Gretta Tuttle
    • Co-Ed
    • (uncredited)
    Dorothy Ward
    • Co-Ed
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • Leo McCarey
    • Writers
      • Corey Ford
      • T.H. Wenning
      • Joseph F. Poland
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Sound version of this film is believed lost; silent version survives.
    • Soundtracks
      Little by Little
      by Robert Emmett Dolan (as Bobby Dolan) and Walter O'Keefe

      Sung by Eddie Quillan and Sally O'Neil

    User reviews3

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    4/10
    He's the prettiest girl on the football team
    Like quite a few other films which someone has described on the IMDb site as 'lost', 'The Sophomore' is very much among the living. I attended a public screening of this film at the American Museum of the Moving Image, on the site of Paramount's old Astoria Studio.

    Despite its title, 'The Sophomore' is not a sequel to Harold Lloyd's film 'The Freshman'. But this movie is directed by the great Leo McCarey, so it automatically merits some attention ... and there are indeed some good scenes here. Eddie Quillan plays Joe, a clean-cut young man who enrols in Hanford College ... ostensibly to get an education. He asks his poor old widowed mother to scrape up the money for his college tuition, which is Strike One against this film's attempt to depict Joe sympathetically. As soon as he arrives on campus, Joe blows all his tuition money in a gambling scheme: that's Strike Two against this movie. Strike Three arrives when we realise that this is one more 'college' movie in which the only important activities are The Big Game and The Big Dance. None of these college students ever seem to care about going to class or getting an education.

    After Joe loses all his money, he has to work his way through college ... which he should have done in the first place, instead of cadging from his poor old mother. He gets a job as a soda jerk in the local tuck-shop where the Hanford students hang out. Also employed there is sweet young co-ed Margie (the pretty Sally O'Neil) who is likewise working her way through college.

    'The Sophomore' was released in silent and talking versions. The talkie version features a scene in which Sally O'Neil sings a song to Eddie Quillan: the song is called 'Little by Little', and I think it was written for this movie. It's a bouncy little tune, which I still hear on the radio every so often. Unfortunately, Sally O'Neil had a poor singing voice, and the sequence is filmed in a very static manner ... probably due to the unwieldy "blimped" cameras of the time. The silent version of this movie has better camera-work.

    When the so-called 'college students' in this movie aren't involved in The Big Game or The Big Dance, the only thing that matters is The Big Show. Our lad Joe (classes? what classes?) joins the amateur theatricals, and he goes onstage in female costume. This college is co-ed, so why are the female roles played by male students? I found these scenes awkward, unfunny and unpleasant. Eddie Quillan should not have been allowed to wear drag on screen. He was a short and slightly-built actor with extremely delicate features, who looked somewhat girlish in male roles. Here in 'The Sophomore', when he dresses up as a girl to play a female role onstage, he calls attention to his own genuinely girlish appearance ... yet at the same time he doesn't actually pass as a girl. It's not pretty, folks.

    But this is a college movie, so of course the climax of the film is The Big Game: a football match against rival college Colton. Our girl Joe ... I mean our lad Joe is too small to be a starter on the football team, but of course he ends up going into the game at the last minute. Does he win the game? I have to give Leo McCarey some credit. All through this college-based movie, McCarey manages to embrace all the rah-rah clichés of the genre ... and then at the very end of the movie he pulls a surprise. I shan't spoil it for you. But 'The Sophomore' isn't an especially good film, in either its silent or its talkie version. I'm a McCarey fan, so it pains me to rate this movie only 4 points out of 10.
    helpful•2
    4
    • F Gwynplaine MacIntyre
    • Feb 13, 2003

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • August 24, 1929 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Compromised
    • Production company
      • Pathé Exchange
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 13 minutes
    • Color
      • Black and White
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.20 : 1

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