AllMovie

Brown of Harvard was pivotal in the career of William Haines. Although Pickford was nominally the star, Haines had the bigger, flashier role, and it set the stage for most of his starring vehicles throughout the rest of the 1920s. The actor became famous for playing over-confident, self-centered characters who, by the film's end, would get their comeuppance and would then win the audience's sympathy as humbler and much wiser men. Haines never really escaped this stereotype, which was not necessarily a bad thing because he did it so well. But even if Brown of Harvard had no historical significance whatsoever, as entertainment it has held up quite well. Even though the students' outfits and slang are very much of their era, the relationships between the three main characters played by Haines, Pickford and Brian still ring true. Haines, especially, is engaging as the youthful jerk who proves he's a good guy after all. Viewers don't have to be silent film fans -- or college sports aficionados, for that matter -- to enjoy the humor and humanity of Brown of Harvard.