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

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...

. The film was produced by

William Randolph Hearst William Randolph Hearst (; April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American newspaper publisher and politician who developed the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His extravagant methods of yellow jou ...

, through Cosmopolitan Productions 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 (film), A Night at the Opera'', ''A Day at the Races (fi ...

. The film was released in a sound version in 1928 with a synchronized musical score with sound effects. 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. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

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

* Marion Davies as Marion Bright * Johnny Mack Brown 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), better known as Lou Costello, was an American comedian, actor and producer. He was best known for his double act with Bud Abbott and their routine " Who's on First?". Abbott and Cos ...

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-American filmmaker, active during the Golden Age of Hollywood. He was known as an auteur of stylish and atmospheric genre films, many of them for RKO Pictures, including ...

as Extra * Lillian Copeland as basketball player

Music

The sound version of this film featured a theme song entitled "The Fair Co-Ed" which was composed by William Axt and David Mendoza.

Production

In her 25th film, Marion Davies starred as a madcap college student with a yen for the basketball coach Johnny Mack Brown.

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, and author. On May 20–21, 1927, he made the first nonstop flight from New York (state), New York to Paris, a distance of . His aircra ...

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.

Stills

File:The Fair Co-ed (SAYRE 14019).jpg, A production still of a college event in the film File:The Fair Co-ed (SAYRE 14112).jpg, alt=A Production still of Marion Davies, who is on the left, and Jane Winton, who is on the Production still of Marion Davies and Jane Winton File:The Fair Co-ed (SAYRE 14597).jpg, alt=AProduction still of Johnny Mack Brown, who is on the left, and Marion Davies, who is on the right., Production still of Johnny Mack Brown and Marion Davies

References

External links

*
Film posterPeriod newspaper advertisingLantern slide; coming attraction
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fair Co-Ed, The 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 English-language films English-language comedy films Films based on works by George Ade