''Bachelor of Arts'' is a 1934 American

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-gen ...

directed by

Louis King Louis King (June 28, 1898 – September 7, 1962) was an American actor and film director of westerns and adventure movies in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s.

and written by Lamar Trotti. The film stars Tom Brown,

Anita Louise Anita Louise (born Anita Louise Fremault; January 9, 1915 – April 25, 1970) was an American film and television actress best known for her performances in ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' (1935), '' The Story of Louis Pasteur'' (1935), '' Antho ...

Henry B. Walthall Henry Brazeale Walthall (March 16, 1878 – June 17, 1936) was an American stage and film actor. He appeared as the Little Colonel in D. W. Griffith's ''The Birth of a Nation'' (1915). Early life Henry B. Walthall was born March 16, 1878 on a ...

, Mae Marsh,

Arline Judge Margaret Arline Judge (February 21, 1912 – February 7, 1974) was an American actress singer who worked mostly in low-budget B movies, but gained some fame for habitually marrying. Early years Arline Judge was born in Bridgeport, Connecti ...

and Frank Albertson. The film was released on November 23, 1934, by

Fox Film Corporation The Fox Film Corporation (also known as Fox Studios) was an American Independent film production studio formed by William Fox (1879–1952) in 1915, by combining his earlier Greater New York Film Rental Company and Box Office Attractions Film C ...

Plot

Alexander "Alec" Hamilton, Jr., a headstrong, but likable freshman at the state college, falls in love at first sight with co-ed Mimi Smith when he sees her standing over him after he gets involved in a brawl at an antiwar speech. After nearly getting into a couple of more fights, Alec, whose father, the owner of Hamilton Iron Works, is sending him through college, proposes to Mimi, who works her way through as a dining hall cashier, but she only agrees to date. After Alec breaks a date with Mimi when his fraternity initiation turns into an all-night drinking party, he meets a radical reading Karl Marx's Das Capital and, convinced that Mimi has not come up against the "realities of life," takes her to a rally in the park. The rally soon turns into a brawl when the people congregated resent Alec and Mimi's intrusion. Mimi and Alec become engaged, but when Alec, on a whim, buys a car instead of her engagement ring, she calls him a spoiled child and says that they should not see each other again. After she sees him driving with Gladys Cottle, who tries to make her jealous, Mimi returns Alec's fraternity pin. As Alec gets acquainted with one of his instructors, Professor Barth, the professor's wife Mary, who is ill, and Robert Neal, an excellent student who uses a wheelchair, he begins to mature; however, when he thinks that Mimi and Professor Donald Woolsey, who has fallen in love with her, are making fun of his singing at Glee Club practice, Alec rebukes Mimi, goes drinking with Gladys and neglects his studies. After the dean reprimands Alec and he is arrested for reckless driving, Mimi writes his father and convinces him not to give Alec money so that he will have to work. Alec gets a job in the University Cafe, and when he learns from Neal that Mrs. Barth will die if she does not get to a better climate soon, he retrieves his fraternity pin from Gladys, who gives it up for a kiss when she sees Mimi watching, hocks it with his watch and sells his blood to get $200, which he leaves anonymously for Mary and Professor Barth so that they can go to the desert. After Mimi reprimands Alec for kissing Gladys, Woolsey, who saw Alec leave the money, tells Mimi of the deed and explains that Alec needed contact with something real: the Barths. Mimi stops Alec from leaving school, and they are reconciled.

Cast

* Tom Brown as Alec Hamilton *

as Mimi Smith *

as Professor Barth * Mae Marsh as Mrs. Mary Barth *

as Gladys Cottle * Frank Albertson as Pete Illings *

George Meeker George Meeker (March 5, 1904 – August 19, 1984) was an American character film and Broadway actor. A graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Meeker made several films such as '' Crime, Inc.'' (1945) and '' A Thief in the Dark'' ...

as Prof. Donald Woolsey *Frank Melton as Jim Lancaster *

Berton Churchill Berton Churchill (December 9, 1876 – October 10, 1940) was a Canadian stage and film actor. Early years Churchill was born in Toronto, Ontario. After his family moved to New York City, he graduated from high school there, studied law a ...

as Alexander Hamilton Sr. *

John Arledge Johnson Lundy Arledge (March 12, 1907 – May 15, 1947) was an American film and stage actor. Biography He played dozens of supporting roles in the Hollywood movies of the 1930s–1940s, including the tractor driver who destroys a house in ''T ...

as Robert Neal *

Stepin Fetchit Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry (May 30, 1902 – November 19, 1985), better known by the stage name Stepin Fetchit, was an American Vaudeville, vaudevillian, comedian, and film actor of Jamaican and Bahamian descent, considered to be the f ...

as Bulga

References

External links

* * {{Louis King 1934 films 1934 drama films American black-and-white films American drama films Films based on American novels Films directed by Louis King Films set in universities and colleges Fox Film films Films with screenplays by Lamar Trotti Films scored by Samuel Kaylin 1930s English-language films 1930s American films