Bachelor of Arts
Cast & Crew
Louis King
Tom Brown
Anita Louise
Henry B. Walthall
Mae Marsh
Arline Judge
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
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 is confined to 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.
Director
Louis King
Cast
Tom Brown
Anita Louise
Henry B. Walthall
Mae Marsh
Arline Judge
Frank Albertson
George Meeker
Frank Melton
Berton Churchill
John Arledge
Stepin Fetchit
Fred Crawford
John Mcguire
Gaylord Pendleton
George Humbert
Eddie Baker
Hal Boyer
Gloria Roy
Maynard Holmes
Macklyn Hall Jr.
Jed Prouty
Anita Brown
Enrico Ricardi
James Farley
Hector Sarno
Francis Ford
Claire Du Brey
Alan Davis
Dr. Danewood
Max Wagner
Edward Gargan
J. Carrol Naish
Richard (tex) Brodus
Crew
Sid Bowen
Gordon Carveth
Sidney Clare
Duncan Cramer
Lewis Creber
Donald Flick
Henry Johnson
Samuel Kaylin
Lillian
Helen Marlowe
L. W. O'connell
John Stone
Lamar Trotti
Richard Whiting
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The novel was originally published in the magazine section of the Herald-Tribune (25 February-13 May 1934). The title card in the opening credits for this film reads: "Fox Film presents John Erskine's Bachelor of Arts." John Erskine, noted humorist, poet and author, was a professor at Columbia University. According to a Daily Variety news item, many scenes were shot on location at Pomona College in Pomona, CA. According to Motion Picture Herald, this was the first film in which Henry B. Walthall and Mae Marsh appeared together since the 1915 D. W. Griffith film, The Birth of a Nation (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1911-20; F1.0337). Motion Picture Herald also noted that Tom Brown and Anita Louise previously had been teamed together as the sweethearts in Judge Priest (see below). Variety stated that Ted Novis was credited with handling the singing; it is unclear whether only his voice was heard in the film or whether he actually appeared onscreen.
