User Reviews

The title sounds very much like an expose' but as the credits and music start it seems to have more in common with "College Sweeties"!!! Sylvia Sidney made some marvelous movies but for every "Street Scene" (1931) or "City Streets" (1931) there was a "Confessions of a Co-Ed" (1931) or a "Behold, My Wife" (1934). "Confessions of a Co-Ed" was heralded as the first authentic college drama but it was anything but, being such a sloppy soap opera that no one wanted to take credit for the script.

Patricia (gorgeous Sylvia Sidney) is a freshman and keen to get on with her life at college.Campus romeo, Dan (Philips Holmes), is completely smitten with her but sorority bad girl Peggy (delicious Claudia Dell) has her eye on him as well. Patricia thinks she has found her ideal man but Peggy puts her wise - Dan is hers!!! (Dan is completely oblivious to Peggy's "charms" - he doesn't really like her). That doesn't stop him taking Peggy out "necking" one night (Pat is giving him the "air") on a road patrolled by police - they are spotted and in the pursuit a policeman is thrown off his bike.

In the ensuing "scandal" Peggy comes forward as the owner of the vanity case that was found in the abandoned car and is thrown out of college. She confesses to Pat that Dan was with her under duress - he never stopped thinking of Pat!!! Pat has now become Hal's (Norman Foster) girl but she secretly loves Dan. She and Dan finally make up on a ski trip. Hal is upset and goes to the dean with the confession that it was Dan in the car with Peggy and Dan is expelled. Dan thinks that Pat told on him and Hal (the fink!!!) who is with him, does not confess - he even offers Dan money ($120) to see him on his way!!!! Peggy comes back to collect some dresses and when Pat tells her the "news" Peggy's manipulations go into high gear. She tells Pat to go after Hal and trap him into marriage, which she does but very unwillingly!!!

After 3 years Dan comes back and is invited by Hal to his home to meet his wife - Pat!!! The ending is quite startling. None of the players are sympathetic - at least Pat suffers with her deceit. Hal alternates between being a doormat and being particularly vindictive, especially in his scene at the end.

Bing Crosby and the Rhythm Boys appeared early on at a school dance. Bing (even with an awful hairpiece) was the emerging star, with Philips Holmes even shouting "Hello Bing" at him - a sure sign of Crosby's growing celebrity. He croons "Out of Nowhere", a huge hit of the year from Paramount's "Dude Ranch" and then the boys join him for a rollicking "Ya Got Love" - a chance to see why the Rhythm Boys were so popular.

Recommended.

Today, most film audiences remember Sylvia Sidney as the cantankerous old lady who ordered Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis to read the handbook in "Beetlejuice" and saved the world from aliens through hideous Slim Whitman music in "Mars Attacks!" But prior to her days as a funny grouch, Sidney was one of the great American movie stars, somewhat typecast as girls from the slums, but on occasion given something other than that.

In this film, she's a serious college student who ignores flirtations when first on campus, but can't help but not resist college hero Phillips Holmes (her co-star from "An American Tragedy") who leaves her high and dry after being expelled for immoral behavior with another student. Bluntly, he is the campus playboy, seducing the various co-eds then dumping them, and in the case of Sylvia, gets her pregnant and leaves her without so much as a goodbye. Of course, he's unaware that she was pregnant, but we find out only because she learns third hand that he's left and runs upstairs crying, obviously in trouble about something.

This is where the plot gets strange. She marries Norman Foster, whom we're lead to believe is aware that Holmes is the father of her baby, but when Holmes returns five years into their marriage, it appears that Foster has thought that he was the father all along and accuses Sidney of having deceived him. Sidney must make a decision for not only her own benefit, but the benefit of her cute little boy (Dickie Moore) who takes one look at Holmes and says, "I like you." Considering that both Moore and Holmes are blonde and Foster is dark haired, it is obvious who the father is.

While this gives a nice look at the life on the college campuses of the early 1930's during the depression and explores many of the social aspects of the lives of young adults at the time, this isn't completely satisfying other than the sincere performances of the leads, especially Sylvia Sidney.

The twists and turns it makes, especially towards the end, are inconsistent with things that were explored earlier. The film does indicate the loyalty of the sorority sisters in the fact that when one girl (Claudia Dell) is revealed to have been a passenger in a car that had an accident allegedly after curfew, they refuse to name names when threatened with suspension. Still, they are quite different than the youth of later eras in the fact that they obviously still judge her for alleged immoral behavior.

A dance sequence features Bing Crosby as himself along with the Rhythm Boys (having earlier appeared in Universal's big color musical revue "King of Jazz") when Bing was a recording idol and not yet a movie star. After one more film as himself ("The Big Broadcast"), he was able to swing into becoming a star in films himself, but most people are unaware that he had been in films for a while. That aspect alone makes this film worth searching out, even though the film overall is not all that great.

This movie is the pits. I've seen many movies completely out of touch with reality (and yes I understand they're movies); this has to be 1931's detached from reality winner.

The co-ed doing the confessing in this pitiful movie is Patricia Harper (Sylvia Sidney). The movie began with her being a freshman at Stafford College. Right away she was heavily pursued by two guys, Dan Carter (Phillips Holmes) and Hal Evans (Norman Foster). Dan was the more aggressive, skilled, and desirable of the two.

Dan put some heavy moves on her and brought out some lines he'd carefully crafted, such as:

"You're the first girl that I've ever met that I'd rather talk to than kiss."

Pat was sunk. He had her hook, line, and sinker. She went back to her dorm room to wistfully write in her diary about the swell guy she'd just met.

Peggy (Claudia Dell), Pat's sorority sister, was steamed. Dan was her man. She told her to keep away, and also told her not to fall for the line that he gives every woman.

Pat's bubble was burst. Dan was a creep.

Sometime later Dan got Pat alone to work on her again. Pat, intentionally or unintentionally forgetting about their first encounter, fell for his charm one more time. She playfully resisted him initially, but his pursuit was too much for her to resist and she fell in love with him.

I thought it was a bit pathetic, but it happens. Maybe Dan was reformed or maybe Pat didn't mind being one of his conquests.

Skipping ahead a bit more and Dan was kicked out of school. He left school rather unceremoniously which left Pat a broken woman. That one day or so she spent with Dan was so magical she couldn't get over him. What she didn't know is that Hal, in a fit of jealousy, got Dan kicked out so that he could have her. Hal didn't do anything really shady, he just told the dean about an incident Dan was guilty of before and had gotten away with.

Skipping ahead three years and Pat is now married to Hal and they have a son. And Pat is STILL in love with Dan.

This is the part I don't get. I admit my heart runs a little colder than most, but I can't imagine 1.) falling in love with someone after one night. 2.) Still being in love with that same person who walked out of my life three years ago and whom I haven't heard a peep from since. But here was Pat, unhappy in her large home because she still loved Dan. Like "Titanic," Dan must've given Pat the best twenty-four hours of her life.

Dan showed up at Hal's job intent on reuniting with Pat, not knowing that he and Pat were married. Hal mentioned that he was now married, but he decidedly kept it a secret who his wife was. Dan said he came back to town for one woman and also didn't mention the name. Obviously, they were talking about the same woman.

When Dan finally revealed that he came back for Pat, Hal was noticeably bothered, but he still didn't mention that he was married to Pat.

Then the scene got otherworldly.

While Hal was still keeping his marriage to Pat a secret from Dan, he asked Dan, "Couldn't she have forgotten all about you?"

With total confidence Dan said, "No, I don't think so. No she hasn't forgotten. Peggy and the others, sure. Not her."

Translation: "I gave it to her so good there's no way she forgot about me. That girl was sprung."

This translation is spot on, because that's exactly how Hal understood it, and Pat confirmed it.

When Pat made her entrance and it was clear that she was married to Hal that gave Dan pause, but it didn't deter him. Then, without saying it, Pat confirmed that she slept with Dan and essentially said that her son belonged to Dan, not Hal. It took some reading between the lines, but it was clear.

Allow me to illustrate:

She told her husband, Hal, that there was something else she had to tell him that he wouldn't like, and before she got it out, her three year old son came downstairs with blondish hair like Dan's. The little boy spoke to Dan kindly while never speaking to Hal while Pat exchanged glances with Dan that said, "Yes, he's yours." Of course, they never say it because God forbid she openly admit to having premarital sex and a child out of wedlock in 1931.

After that scene in which nothing, yet everything was said, Pat asked Hal, "What do you want? Divorce?" as Hal sat stewing.

Dan boldly chimed in, "I hope he does Pat because I've come back to marry you and that's all I've come back for."

It was comical and infuriating at the same time.

After a few more minutes of conversation and Pat battling with her feelings she broke down and admitted she still loved Dan. Dan confidently told Hal, "Hal, I'm taking her with me," to which Hal simply answered with a smile, "There's nothing I can do about it. You've licked me this time," like he just lost at marbles.

The final ten minutes of this tripe was just bizarre. None of it registered with me. From Pat still being in love with Dan to Hal easily giving her up, it was all nonsensical to me. Some 1930's films showed some strange relationships, but this was by far the worst.