weezeralfalfa Review of The Hayseed

The Hayseed (1919)

A moderately funny Arbucle and Keaton comedy short

[7/10 · 22 August 2018]

Not one of the best of the 14 Roscoe Arbuckle plus Buster Keaton 2 reel comedy 'shorts from 1917-20. Hey, their 100th anniversary! Instead of the usual Al St. John as his nemesis, Jack Coogan Sr. is present, as the sneaky constable, in competition with Roscoe for the hand of Molly Malone, who is from the country. Roscoe is the mailman , and Buster is the manager of the general store, in which the post office is housed. First, Roscoe is angry because Buster ran into him while carrying a big pile of packages, making him spill all. They engage in a battle, hitting the other over the head with packages. Roscoe is very skilled at flipping letters into mail boxes with narrow slits. But, one letter is too big, so her tears it into 8 pieces, which he deposits......Roscoe and Molly play hide and seek near a farmer's barn. Roscoe hides in a haystack and falls asleep. The farmer comes along and sticks his pitchfork into the hay and Roscoe's rear end. .....Roscoe goes inside the post office, and tells the assistant that here is a letter with a declared value of $300. The constable overhears this, and later sneaks in, opens the letter by steam, extracts the money and reseals it. Keaton sees all this from outside, and tells the constable, who rings his neck , then punches him in the face many times to instill fear of revealing the theft. Later, the constable will accuse Roscoe of the theft, but Buster will come to the aid of his friend.......Molly asks Roscoe for a ring, to prove his love. He looks in a catalogue of cheap fake jewelry, and writes a letter saying that the ring should fit over the 3rd bump on this pickle. But, the constable beats Roscoe in putting a ring on Molly's finger. Nonetheless, Roscoe arrives with a bigger (fake) stone, and she hides the other ring......Up on the roof, Keaton dumps a bucket of water on the constable, below, and also on another man. They team up to induce Keaton to step on the ladder, then hoist the ladder away from the building, causing Keaton to fall into Roscoe's mail wagon, without injury........ I'll let you see the rest, without comment......In general, I believe Roscoe incorporated too many prat falls in his comedies. An occasional one is OK, but not one after the other, repeated. Also, he and his performers are often too wordy, and we have no idea what they are saying. This film is available at YouTube, and in various DVD sets.