''The Fair Co-Ed'', also known as ''The Varsity Girl'', is a 1927 American silent film comedy starring

Marion Davies Marion Davies (born Marion Cecilia Douras; January 3, 1897 – September 22, 1961) was an American actress, producer, screenwriter, and philanthropist. Educated in a religious convent, Davies fled the school to pursue a career as a chorus girl ...

and released through

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...

. The film was produced by

William Randolph Hearst William Randolph Hearst Sr. (; April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American businessman, newspaper publisher, and politician known for developing the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His flamboya ...

, through

Cosmopolitan Productions Cosmopolitan Productions, also often referred to as Cosmopolitan Pictures, was an American film company based in New York City from 1918 to 1923 and Hollywood until 1938. History Newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst formed Cosmopolitan in co ...

and directed by

Sam Wood Samuel Grosvenor Wood (July 10, 1883 – September 22, 1949) was an American film director and producer who is best known for having directed such Hollywood hits as '' A Night at the Opera'', '' A Day at the Races'', '' Goodbye, Mr. Chips'', '' ...

. The film is based on a 1909 play/musical comedy ''The Fair Co-Ed'' by George Ade which starred a young

Elsie Janis Elsie Janis (born Elsie Bierbower, March 16, 1889 – February 26, 1956) was an American actress of stage and screen, singer, songwriter, screenwriter and radio announcer. Entertaining the troops during World War I immortalized her as " the sw ...

, and opened on Broadway on February 1, 1909. The film survives today, supposedly in the MGM/UA archives, now controlled by

Warner Brothers Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

Plot

Marion Bright enrolls in college to pursue a handsome young man, Bob, only to discover that he is coach of the women's basketball team there. Marion joins the team and becomes its star player, but becomes unpopular when she refuses to play a game after a disagreement with Bob. Happily for all, she has a change of heart and returns in time to help the team win the big game.

Cast

as Marion Bright *

Johnny Mack Brown John Brown (September 1, 1904 – November 14, 1974) was an American college football player and film actor billed as John Mack Brown at the height of his screen career. He acted and starred mainly in Western films. Early life Born and raise ...

as Bob *

Jane Winton Jane Winton (October 10, 1905 – September 22, 1959) was an American film actress, dancer, opera soprano, writer, and painter. Early years Winton was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1905. The deaths of her father when she was four yea ...

as Betty * Thelma Hill as Rose * Lillian Leighton as Housekeeper *Gene Stone as Herbert *James Bradbury, Sr. as uncredited *

Lou Costello Louis Francis Cristillo (March 6, 1906 – March 3, 1959), professionally known as Lou Costello, was an American comedian, actor and producer. He was best known for his double act with straight man Bud Abbott and their routine " Who's on First? ...

as Extra *

Joel McCrea Joel Albert McCrea (November 5, 1905 – October 20, 1990) was an American actor whose career spanned a wide variety of genres over almost five decades, including comedy, drama, romance, thrillers, adventures, and Westerns, for which he bec ...

as Student *

Jacques Tourneur Jacques Tourneur (; November 12, 1904 – December 19, 1977) was a French film director known for the classic film noir ''Out of the Past'' and a series of low-budget horror films he made for RKO Studios, including ''Cat People (1942 film), Cat ...

as Extra *

Lillian Copeland Lillian Copeland (born Lillian Drossin; November 24, 1904 – July 7, 1964) was an American track and field Olympic champion athlete, who excelled in discus, javelin throwing, and shot put, setting multiple world records. She has been called ...

as basketball player

Production

In her 25th film,

starred as a madcap college student with a yen for the basketball coach

always disliked this film and disliked director

. Hearst always referred to this film as "that cheap-looking comedy" that went for "yap laughs." But laughs there were as Davies joins the college basketball team to be near Brown and to spite her rival (

). Davies races back and forth on basketball courts, zooms about in jalopies, and even climbs a tree in this one. One of the highlights in the shooting of this film was when

Charles Lindbergh Charles Augustus Lindbergh (February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974) was an American aviator, military officer, author, inventor, and activist. On May 20–21, 1927, Lindbergh made the first nonstop flight from New York City to Paris, a distance o ...

visited the set. Davies was his favorite movie star. This was another box-office hit for Davies. Lorusso, Edward (2017) ''The Silent Films of Marion Davies'', CreateSpace, pp. 137-138.

References

External links

* *
Film posterPeriod newspaper advertisingLantern slide; coming attraction
1927 films 1927 comedy films American basketball films American black-and-white films Silent American comedy films American films based on plays American silent feature films Films directed by Sam Wood Films set in universities and colleges Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films 1920s American films {{1920s-silent-comedy-film-stub