IMDB:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0167983/HEATHER AND YON is a remake of the Buster Keaton Educational short JAIL BAIT, which was quite the good short. There are differences, however. First, the romance angle is much stronger and unique in HEATHER AND YON, as it (1) is just better with Andy Clyde and (2) plays off Andy's Scottish heritage.
HEATHER AND YON starts off great. I mean it is seriously one of
nicest openings to any Columbia short. Andy is in love with his English diction instructor, and she gives him a marriage proposal to read for his assignment. Of course, this follows another of Andy's great extractions, this time with no stunt doubles even!
After that it's a full-blown remake of JAIL BAIT, only with Jack Norton as the screwball friend. Andy carries what was originally Buster's role very well, and the legendary Columbia actors all deliver at 100%. Not only that, but we get the accomplished Isabel Withers, who usually appeared in Hugh Herbert shorts. There are some plot holes, like the original, that make this difficult to watch int he middle parts, but overall a lot of this depends on the shorter run-time of Columbia shorts.
Two notes about this:
(1) It sucks to see that Columbia gave Andy the "Merrily We Roll Along" theme after he was so well established with "Reuben and Rachael".
(2) If you look at the output from 1944 and 1945 you will see a down-tick in the number of shorts made, particularly with a sizable gap between some of the release dates; this was the period where Andy was mourning the death of his son, John Allan Clyde.
A good remake of a fascinating even if grim film; it is a rare case of both a Buster Keaton short and its remake both being excellent films.
9/10