The film begins with Harvard Lampoon coming to Maxie's nightclub to give him an award. Maxie is unaware that the Lampoon is actually a comedic organization and the award is making fun of how stupid Maxie is. For the longest time, he has no idea he's the butt of a joke that's in rather poor taste.
Later, when he sees the newspapers talking about his dubious award, he finally realizes what happened and is determined to educate himself and "learn big words" so people won't be able to make fun of him. So he does what anyone would do--apply to Harvard! Considering he never completed grade school, this is ridiculous. However, professors from the anthropology department see him and want to hire him--they see him as the "missing link". Maxie thinks this means he's matriculating to the university--whereas they just want to study him and his less than stellar brain.
Once on campus, students act friendly with him, but in actuality many of them are making fun of him or laughing at his antics. Oddly, it turns out that that Maxie actually is a bit of a mathematics whiz--though how and why is not especially clear. But, apart from that I'll let you see for yourself where the film goes next. Will Maxie figure out the truth? Will he learn some "big words"? Will it all somehow turn out right by the end of the film?
This movie starred Max 'Slapsie Maxie' Rosenbloom--a man whose claim to fame in Hollywood was playing supporting roles. Rarely did he star in a film--like he did here in "Harvard, Here I Come!. Interestingly, he also plays himself here--a dumb punch-drunk ex-boxing champion who is tired of people making fun of him for his limited intellect. Sadly, in real life he WAS rather "punch-drunk"--suffering from an increasingly addled brain through his life as a result of appearing in almost 300 boxing matches (in fact, he was the light-heavy weight champ for several years)! So, when the film made fun of him or had him say stupid things, I had a hard time laughing because I wasn't sure how much of this was the real Slapsie Maxie--it was almost like laughing at someone with mental retardation. As a result, even though the film was enjoyable and even funny at times, I really can't recommend it wholeheartedly.
