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Hayseed Romance (1935) - Buster Keaton

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Offline metaldams



      Basic plot here.  Buster sees an ad in the paper asking to double as a farm hand and husband.  Buster answers ad, gets led to the house by pretty young girl who tells her the address in ad is her's leading Buster to believe said pretty young girl made the ad.  He goes to the house only to find out it's the pretty young girl's older and much bigger aunt who places the ad. Buster falls for pretty young girl anyway and slapstick ensues.

      That pretty young girl is awfully familiar.  The magic of screen credits tell me her name is Dorothea Kent.  My memory isn't quite magical enough to know where I heard that name before, though it is familiar.  More magic comes back through something called a search engine, and lo and behold, I find out, around the same time that she appeared in HORSES' COLLARS....it's Nell.  Yup, one time Stooge actress shows up a few times with Keaton too.  One of the joys of watching these old movies is finding all these links.

      The film itself is perfectly serviceable for a lower budget Keaton mid 30's short.  The great joy is simply watching Keaton act.  Check out his body language when he finds out it's the Aunt who wants to marry him and not the niece.  A simple thing like this a lesser comedian would overreact, but Keaton being able to convey so much doing so little is a slapstick highlight in and of itself.  Again, this is a short not too bogged in dialogue, unlike MGM and Columbia, so one gets the feeling this is closest to how Keaton would make talkies.

      The only thing Keaton doesn't have here, of course, is a budget.  This is common throughout all the Educational films, but the gags themselves are pretty stock.  Dropping dishes and falling through a roof are the order of the day.  Not bad at all, but you know Keaton would want the big gag, which is not really here. The falling through the roof stuff tends to be edited shot by shot.  I can't help but think a Keaton with more time at his disposal would be able to stage this in a way we can see the action in less shots and more jaw dropping stunt work...think the end where all those gags fall into one shot in the booby trapped house of 'THE HIGH SIGN.'  It's for reasons like this I would never use a short like this to introduce anyone to Keaton, and knowing this is a Three Stooges board, I feel the need to mention this.  Still, if you're a fan like me who has seen the silents a zillion times and likes low budget 30's comedy shorts, no reason not to enjoy this.  The ghost gag towards the end is a pleasant ending to another pleasant short.
- Doug Sarnecky


Offline Big Chief Apumtagribonitz

I'm O K with this.  Lots of good gags, well-executed.  Working the two-man saw was good, as was the setting-up to milk the horse. Dorothea Kent isn't much of an actress, never mind a comedienne, but she certainly looks fetching in pajamas.  Jane Jones is a good sport.  And, whaddya know, a happy ending for Elmer.


Offline metaldams

I'm O K with this.  Lots of good gags, well-executed.  Working the two-man saw was good, as was the setting-up to milk the horse. Dorothea Kent isn't much of an actress, never mind a comedienne, but she certainly looks fetching in pajamas.  Jane Jones is a good sport.  And, whaddya know, a happy ending for Elmer.

      Agree very much with your assessment concerning Dorothea Kent.  Cute girl, had to have been about 18 or 19 when filmed, so looks and charm are certainly more the appeal than worldliness or acting ability.  Gotta wonder if that's why someone like Christine McIntyre worked so much better than a lot of these other actresses in these comedies.  Christine was in her mid 30's - early 40's when doing those Stooge shorts, so her maturity worked wonders.  Dorothea Kent seems just out of high school.

      Funnily enough, Buster, who was my age when this was filmed, is actually much closer in age to Jane Jones than Dorothea Kent.
- Doug Sarnecky


Offline Umbrella Sam

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Most of the gags are alright, but I don’t find any of them particularly memorable besides the saw gag and the gags involving Keaton interacting with his ghost. As far as the plot itself goes, it’s pretty generic, but at least the aunt character isn’t as unlikeable as the wife in MY WIFE’S RELATIONS. She does demand a lot, but she isn’t physically abusive or anything, and when she has her outbursts, they are understandable, like when Keaton accidentally causes her to fall out the window. That ending felt really rushed, though, and it doesn’t answer the question of whether or not they’re supposed to continue working on the farm.

Not bad, but it didn’t really leave a huge impression on me, and some of the gags like the roof gags felt like they could have been done just as well by anyone else. Still, the ghost gags were a nice touch and there really isn’t anything intolerable about it, so I wouldn’t dread having to watch it again, even if I don’t consider it top-tier Keaton.

6 out of 10
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