Topic: Heather and Yon (1944) - Andy Clyde

[Paul Pain]

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

[HomokHarcos]

The opening was pretty nice, and I like that there was no domestic dispute. They could have easily gone the way of most other Columbia comedies and had some misunderstandings after the proposal, but it worked out nice. The second part is almost completely unrelated, but I think more entertaining. It was funny seeing Andy Clyde in prison with a gun (how they'd ever let that happen)? A part I found pretty good that was violent was when Andy gets his head stuck between bars, so they try to decapitate his head with a saw! I think that would have worked better with The Three Stooges and Moe having his head there. Plus there was a scene when Andy gets himself into the electric chair, I like how he puts on the top as a disguise and the two guys working it seem to be drunk.

[metaldams]

Another fine short.  While the writing is not quite on the level of the Keaton short, the slapstick and Clyde’s energy really make up for it.  I love the motorcycles going through the jail cell hallway and Snub Pollard sawing Andy’s head out of those bars.  I’m really sold on the idea now that this is probably the second best Columbia series due to quantity combined with quality.

Another observation.  Clyde, who unlike the other silent clowns barely, if ever, played roles where he got the girl when he was younger, gets to play an older character and gets a lady close to his age!  What a concept.  I know Keaton married a young girl in real life and by all accounts, it was a happy marriage, but exceptions aside, in general, the chemistry between 40 year old comedians and 19 year old actresses just doesn’t work.  A refreshing change here.