Pardon My Nightshirt (1956) User Reviews

The Old Grey Mare, She Ain't What She Used to Be

[boblipton · 6/10 · 19 August 2013]

Andy Clyde's last short for Jules White is a remake of Charley Chase's THE NIGHTSHIRT BANDIT and Clyde's GO CHASE YOURSELF. It shows all the typical economies that Jules White practiced. Not only were large parts of the script reused, but lots of shots from both earlier efforts.

Even so, it is a very enjoyable movie. Clyde is summoned when the "Nightshirt Bandit" is seen on campus and soon finds himself mistaken for the thief and chasing a dog which has gotten hold of some cash. Clyde's character is not stupid, but events move far faster than he can and this long-time slapstick professional gives a typically fine performance, as does Dudley Dickerson in support.

This was not the end of the line for Clyde, who had started out with Sennett in the 1920s and survived the collapse of the King of Comedy's studio. He moved from twenty-minute film comedies to 20-minute TV comedies, where I saw him frequently on "Lassie" and "The Real McCoys".

A Decent Remake of Two Previous Shorts

[abbazabakyleman-98834 · 6/10 · 14 March 2019]

This short is essentially a remake of two previous Columbia shorts: The Nightshirt Bandit from 1938 starring Charley Chase and 1948's Go Chase Yourself starring Andy Clyde. This version flows along better thanks to some new footage featuring Clyde and campus watchman Dudley Dickerson. Joe Palma assumes the role as the actual bandit who stole the campus's funds from the dean's office.

This was also the final film role for Clyde, as he would continue to work in television up until his death in 1967.

This version blows the other two out of the water

[Kmcelravy79 · 7/10 · 26 August 2013]

Andy Clyde's final Columbia two-reeler is actually a remake of Charley Chase's THE NIGHTSHIRT BANDIT (1938) and Clyde's own GO CHASE YOURSELF (1948). I honestly think this version is better executed thanks to Felix Adler rewriting the script to keep it simple.

Clyde is a professor at an all-girls college who is hired to track down a thief prowling the campus as The Nightshirt Bandit. In the 1948 version, Clyde is actually the bandit himself, but doesn't know it since he sleepwalks while stealing stuff. In this version, the bandit is played by Joe Palma, who was the only supporting actor still active at Columbia's shorts department, but we do get to see Dudley Dickerson in the new footage as he was pretty much finished with the movie industry around this time. Still it's worth recommending.

Time to give it a rest....

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 16 July 2018]

Columbia Pictures made a ton of short comedies in the 1930s-50s....so many that they often resorted to making remakes...and, sometimes, remakes of remakes. This is the case with "Pardon My Nightshirt", as it was the third time the studio used this story. In fact, their lack of originality went even further--they cut apart the first two films and used this footage in the third! Talk about being lazy!

In this film, there's a so-called 'nightshirt bandit' who commits robberies at night. Professor Clyde is asked to help and he ends up being mistaken for the bandit! Fortunately, no matter how bad things get, Andy is more than capable of finding not only the bandit but the money he stole from the college.

Other than a lack of originality, the film just isn't all that funny. What also wasn't funny was the black actor who seemed to be there just so white audiences of the day could laugh at him....which is pretty sad.

1956? Seems more like 1936!

[mark.waltz · 2/10 · 7 August 2018]

Comedy had changed quite a bit from the silent era, through the studio era, and movie shorts paved the way for sitcoms. This is the third version of a Columbia short, one starring Charlie Chase, and the other starring Andy Clyde who returns to the same story that he had done 18 years before. Reading that footage of both previous shorts were used for this made me cringe even though the entire short feels like it was already old and simply a 1956 re-release. The comedy is overtly racist, even by mid 1950's standards, and I can't imagine it getting many laughs at that time. The story surrounds the presence of the "nightshirt bandit", with Clyde in the wrong place at the wrong time and accused of being the bandit. It's extremely unfunny no matter what year it was made, and an embarrassing example of Hollywood at it's most racist and pathetic in efforts to make a quick Buck.

Clyde's Final

[Michael_Elliott · 27 February 2008]

Pardon My Nightshirt (1956)

** (out of 4)

Andy Clyde gets asked to investigate ghostly situations at a local school and gets scared. There's one funny gag here where Clyde and his servant fight to see who gets out the door first but the rest of the gags are all rather old. Clyde's final movie.

As of now, none of the Clyde shorts are available on DVD so you'll have to get them from a trader. Columbia owns the rights so perhaps they'll release them at some point as they did with their Buster Keaton shorts. Turner Classic Movies could show them but haven't as of yet.