Freshman Year (1938)

Set on the campus of Carlton College. Dixie Wright is given a ride by Frank Melton as they head to college. Melton is from Texas. William Lundigan meets and falls for Constance Moore. The year starts with the Freshman  Brawl, a wild mele that ends in a mud fight. Melton helps the freshmen win over the sophomores. Alpha Sigma rush Lundigan, but he won't join without his roommates, Melton and Mark Daniels. Moore presses him as to why he did not pledge the fraternity, but he will not talk about it. Then Lundigan misses a date with Moore to help Melton study for a big test, and Daniels takes his place. When Lundigan shows up, Wright is there, so he gives her a ride to the campus malt shop, where he sees Moore and Daniels. When Daniels gets back, they fight, but settle it later. Melton flunks the test, but can take the re-test for $10. It gives Lundigan the idea to create a Flunk Insurance fund.

Green Day comes up, in which freshman take over offices that upper classmen have been filling. Daniels is the editor of the school paper. He gives Moore the assignment to do a story on the insurance fund. He also comes out with an editorial saying the the political science class is outmoded. He gets summoned to the discipline committee of the faculty board. Lundigan acts as his "lawyer," and gives examples when each of the professors was, in his younger years, accused of being radical on one issue or another. He then asks the professor several questions that show he is indeed behind the times. The board gives Daniels another chance on the condition that he be more tactful. The professor (Earnest Truex) admits that he has been outmoded. He becomes a paragon of slang language, but his tests are completely different, throwing the insurance fund into a financial crisis - short by $800. Then Melton comes in to announce that he has flunked off, and has a letter from his mother reminding him about how hard it was for his parents to raise the money to send him to school. He sells his car for $300 and sends the money to Lundigan to help on the fund.

Upperclassmen tell Lundigan he should disband the insurance fund, and may even be criminally liable. Moore suggests they put on a show to raise the balance of what is owed, but they cannot sell any tickets. So Moore comes up with idea to put on the show with a "pay only if you like it" scheme. Truex shows up at rehearsals because he is suddenly fascinated by jazz. The show begins, and the audience is cold as ice because the influential upperclassmen are against it. (There is a great skit by The Diamond Brothers.) Finally someone sets the shoe of the main objector on fire, and he slips it out, causing everyone to applaud. Then Dunbar calls Truex up on stage for the big finale.


Dunbar