Flawlessly executed and edited for maximum impact, the gags have timepiece precision, but Lloyd always sells his mishaps as things that just kind of happen to his character [The Freshman] works because it keeps viewers rooting for its hero.

Lloyd has never been a very good actor; he has been a dummy for comic devices. And we are not much moved by the scene in The Freshman in which he learns at last that he has been the butt of his fellow students, instead of, as he has believed, their hero.

Mr. Lloyd could be funny playing an undisturbed mummy. Simply this: The Freshman is not so funny as earlier of the comedian's adventures.

His mix of spunky resilience and wide-eyed obliviousness makes him both admirable and pathetic, at least until the energetic naïf proves himself in the big football game.