Cultural Representations of Higher Ed, No. 5

I am working backwards through this list. Here are films 151 to 200.

The rankings are my own and in most cases somewhat arbitrary. The descriptions of the films are paraphrases of summaries found in a half-dozen print and online film guides. I compiled the list about a decade ago, and it needs some updating.

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151. Meet Nero Wolfe: Wolfe and Archie Goodwin investigate the death of a college president.

152. Murder Goes to College: a p.i. and a reporter try to solve a murder on a college campus.

153. Torso: police investigate the mutilation-murders of two college students.

154. Murder 101: in this made-for-television film, Pierce Brosnan is a professor whose class brainstorms the perfect murder–a crime for which he is subsequently the chief suspect.

155. Grand Slam: a college student becomes involved in an elaborate heist.

156. American Tiger: a college student is accused of murder and pursues the real killer with the help of an exotic dancer.

157. Fade to Black: a college professor happens to videotape a murder for which he then becomes the main suspect.

158. The Billionnaire Boys Club: rich college students indulge in organized crime.

159. Less than Zero: a college student returns home and realizes just how seriously selfdestructive his hometown friends are.

160. Open Admissions: a made-for-television film adaptation of the play by Shirley Lauro about an African-American student who needs remedial work.

161. Final Shot: The Hank Gathers Story: a bio-pic about the Loyola Marymount basketball star who chose to risk death from a diagnosed heart ailment rather than quit the hardwood.

162. Grambling’s White Tiger: a white quarterback plays for the Black college’s historically elite football team.

163. Trouble along the Way: John Wayne is a controversial football coach hired to save a Catholic college by making it a football power.

164. The Iron Major: the dramatization of the life of a disabled veteran of the First World War who became an inspirational football coach.

165. Footsteps: Richard Crenna is a driven and hard-driving college football coach

166. One on One: Robby Benson stars as a scholarship athlete who confronts some of the hard realities and transparent hypocrisies of college basketball.

167. Running Brave: Robby Benson stars as Billy Mills, a Sioux athlete who became a collegiate and Olympic track-and-field champion despite the conflicts caused by the biases of both Whites and Native Americans.

168. Everybody’s All-American: Dennis Quaid is the title character who tries to cope with life after his playing days are long over.

169. The Program: an expose of the hard realities of college football.

170. What Price Victory: Mac Davis confronts the realities of big-time college sports.

171. A Yank at Oxford: Robert Taylor is an American jock who has more than a little trouble fitting in.

172. Oxford Blues: Rob Lowe in Robert Taylor’s role.

173. Hold That Coed: John Barrymore is a politician whose future comes to depend on the outcome of a football game.

174. Gentlemen Are Born: a group of college graduates face the hard economic conditions of the Great Depression.

175. Happy as the Grass Is Green: a college student agrees to accompany a friend back home for a family funeral and finds his perspective unexpectedly broadened by the experience.

176. Peter’s Friends: a Kenneth Branaugh film about college friends who continue to socialize after their lives diverge; not one of his stellar efforts.

177. St. Elmo’s Fire: college friends try to move on with their lives without letting go of each other.

178. Love Story: the great tear-jerker about the doomed love affair between two college students.

179. These Glamour Girls: a well-off college student in the 1930s invites a dime-a-dance girl to spend a weekend socializing with his pretentious friends.

180. Loving: a made-for-television film about life in a university town, with an emphasis on romance–the pilot for the short-lived daytime soap opera of the same name.

181. Joy in the Morning: an earlier take on the subject of Loving.

182. Our Time: a 1970s college romance set in the 1950s.

183. Take Care of My Little Girl: Jeane Crain and Mitzi Gaynor are sorority sisters in this melodrama about campus life.

184. Girls’ Dormitory: a campus romance.

185. The Affairs of Dobie Gillis: a lighthearted take on campus life in the early 1950s.

186. Andy Hardy’s Blonde Trouble: Andy Hardy goes to college.

187. Andy Hardy’s Double Life: more of Andy in college.

188. Mr. Belvedere Goes to College: a genius learns that there’s knowledge to be found outside of books.

189. Blondie Goes to College: the Bumsteads decide to pretend they’re single when they return to college.

190. To Love Again/The Seduction of Miss Leona: Lynn Redgrave is a professor who falls in love with a handyman.

191. Like Mom, Like Me: in this made-for-television film, Linda Lavin is a professor who becomes a single mother when her husband deserts her and their daughter.

192. Is There Life Out There?: Reba McEntire is a working mother who returns to college.

193. With Honors: Brendan Fraser and Joe Pesci represent respectively the university

environment and the mean streets in this exercise in the exchange of knowledge.

194. The All-Nighter: a college senior hopes to define her career goals and to establish a long-term relationship, all in the final few weeks before graduation.

195. Class of ’44: the college-years sequel to Class of ’42.

196. September 30, 1955: college students mourn the death of James Dean.

197. The Boy Who Had Everything: an Australian film about a college student who gradually discovers that his life is a good deal more complicated than he had thought.

198. The Children Nobody Wanted: a college student struggles with being a foster parent.

199. Man, Woman, and Child: an established professor and his family must adjust to the news that he has a ten-year-old illegitimate son who is coming to live with them.

200. Betty Coed: Jean Porter is a stage actress who struggles with her decision to get a college degree.

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The first post in this series, covering films ranked 351 to 400 is available at: https://academeblog.org/2013/07/09/400-films-about-higher-education-or-at-least-set-on-campuses-351-400/

The second post in this series, covering films ranked 301-350 is available at: https://academeblog.org/2013/07/10/400-films-about-higher-education-or-at-least-set-on-campuses-301-350/

The third post in this series, covering films ranked 251 to 300 is available at: https://academeblog.org/2013/07/11/400-films-about-higher-education-or-at-least-set-on-campuses-251-300/

The fourth post in this series, covering films ranked 201 to 250 is available at: https://academeblog.org/2013/07/12/400-films-about-higher-education-or-at-least-set-on-campuses-201-250/