Highly Overrated But Still Good

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

I watched this with my teenage son. It is the first time he has seen a Laurel and Hardy film (just tells you how rarely Laurel and Hardy are shown on television these days.) He laughed like a loon.Not a surprise although it is one of their longer length films it still has a lot of knockabout comedy and the song and dance numbers compliment the film rather than get in the way.Laurel & Hardy go west to Brushwood Gulch to deliver the deeds to a goldmine and a locket to a dead prospector's daughter.However a saloon owner (James Finlayson) conspires with his wife to pretend to be the daughter. Once the duo realise their error, they try to retrieve the deeds which involves a mule lifting Hardy up.It really is silly slapstick and a lot of fun.

Because if you do, you might not be able to stop (presuming you're a normal human being), and this could lead to serious consequences, and possible personal injury. I remember watching a Laurel & Hardy short, called Our Wife, when I started to laugh, and then couldn't stop. I thought I might die, and was rolling around on the floor in front of my TV.I'd only seen the song of Trail of the Lonesome Pine, and the dance excerpt, up to yesterday, when I caught the whole performance on youtube. I was in repeated paroxysms of laughter. What stupefies and astonishes me is that there are actually some people who think these two aren't funny. My daughter-in-law informed me some time ago that Laurel and Hardy's humour only appeals to men. I told her that was a strange opinion, because my own mother, in living memory, had thought them the funniest ever. This film starts off very well. It establishes beyond all doubt that we are here visiting the wild west at its woolliest, not to say its hollywoodiest, and it will be an ideal, not to say perfect, place for our two heroes to embark on yet another of their fine and messy adventures. The spontaneous soft-shoe shuffle, by an inspired stroke of creative genius, was performed on a sound stage against a back- projection of a western town's characters going about their daily business. A sublime piece of surreality. Where else could this bowler- hatted duo perform quite so elegantly, except in this non-existent never-neverland ? It is certainly useful to know that we have been having a lot of weather recently. It must be the season, because it is soon about to be Mary Christmas. Time for the end of this review.

A personal note before reviewing this movie proper: I first watched this as a kid in 1979 at the East Baton Rouge Parish Library (a building which was torn down last year to be replaced by another one with the same name) when the place showed old movies every Saturday. I only saw part of it then but what I saw was pretty funny. Then I saw it again, weeks later, at the same place-this time the entirety of it-and it was really funny! This was my first viewing of a Laurel & Hardy film. The thin English one and the heavyset one from Harlem, Georgia were hilarious to watch for me at the time so as a result, they became my favorite comedians to this day. Their arrival in a western town is to deliver a deed-from her late father-to a woman named Mary Roberts (Rosina Lawrence). But since they've never seen her before, Mickey Finn (L & H regular James Finlayson) passes his wife, saloon singer Lola Marcel (Sharon Lynne) as her. I'll stop there and just say after rewatching this on YouTube, this is still quite a hilarious outing for the boys whether, among other things between them, getting chased by the Finns or doing their dance to a tune by The Avalon Boys or even when they're singing and Stan suddenly changes voices mid-song! This was funny mostly from beginning to end. So on that note, I highly recommend Way Out West.

WAY OUT WEST (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1937), directed by James Horne, a Stan Laurel Production for the Hal Roach Studios, is a way out western comedy starring that classic team of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. If not their funniest, it's definitely one of their finest achievements. Placing Laurel and Hardy in a western setting is a welcome change of pace. For a western, Laurel and Hardy retain their character traits and derby hat trademark. For a western, they don't ride sidesaddle on horses, but travel along in the company of their donkey, Diane. For a western, it's their only attempt in that genre.The plot is basic and simple. It deals with Stan and Ollie traveling west to Brushwood Gulch where they are to locate and hand deliver a gold mining deed to the daughter of the late Cy Roberts. While on the stagecoach to town, Ollie gets overly familiar with a woman passenger (Vivian Oakland) who turns out to be the sheriff's wife. Learning of his wife's annoyance, the Sheriff (Stanley Fields) orders the two dudes to leave town on the next coach. Ollie obliges, but he and Stan must first fulfill their mission, and they do. After locating the whereabouts of Mary Roberts at a local saloon, they encounter Mary's guardian, saloon owner Mickey Finn (James Finlayson), who give it to his wife, entertainer Lola Marcal (Sharon Lynne), as the rightful heir. After passing off the deed to "Mary Roberts," Stan and Ollie later meet with the real Mary Roberts (Rosina Lawrence), a sweet but extremely overworked young lady working in Mickey Finn's Palace. Realizing their blunder, Stan and Ollie attempt on getting the deed back from these two crooks, which comes with much difficulty to hilarious results.With 66 minutes of non-stop comedy, song interludes are inserted, none intrusive to the plot, with those including: "Won't You Be My Lovey Dovey?" (sung by Sharon Lynne); "Commencing to Dancing" (Sung by Chill Wills and the Avalon Boys); "In the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia," and "Way Down South in Dixie" (sung by Rosina Lawrence, Laurel and Hardy). Of these fine tunes, the "Commence to Dancing" sequence is most memorable due for Laurel and Hardy's soft shoe dancing.For many years on broadcast television, the "Lovey Dovey" number was usually edited, with film opening with Stan and Ollie traveling down the dirt road bound for Brushwood Gulch. It wasn't until sometime in the late seventies when WAY OUT WEST would be shown on TV uncut, starting with Public Television, giving repeated viewers a chance to enjoy the movie intact. It's also worth noting how, in the New York City area during the late 1960s, how sometimes TV Guide programmers would confuse the Laurel and Hardy comedy with that of the William Haines own western-comedy of WAY OUT WEST (MGM, 1930) to be shown on the late-late show, or visa versa.While Haines' WAY OUT WEST is seldom revived these days (even on Turner Classic Movies), it's Laurel and Hardy edition of WAY OUT WEST that's stood the test of time. Interestingly, it's a little known fact that WAY OUT WEST did get nominated for an Academy Award. No, not for best original screenplay (by Jack Jevne, Charles Rogers, James Parrott and Felix Adler), or Best Picture, but for best musical direction (by Marvin Hatley). Accordingly, slapstick and dialog are the essence for WAY OUT WEST or any Laurel and Hardy comedy. Once seen, it's hard to forget Hardy's repeated disappearance into a hidden hole while strolling or running through the riverbed; Laurel's surreal moments singing in both baritone and monotone, and ability to turn his thumb into a flaming torch of fire; Laurel paying homage to Claudette Colbert's classic hitchhiking scene from IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (Columbia, 1934); Laurel going into hysterics while on the bed of bad girl Lola as she goes through his pockets for the deed; and best of all, James Finlayson, a regular in many Laurel and Hardy comedies dating back to the silent era, doing his now familiar yet often funny direct stares to the camera and intake of air during his constant signs of disbelieve. Finlayson is one of a kind. And where else where can anyone find a movie such as this where the donkey appears to be much smarter than Stan and Ollie.Distributed to home video in the 1980s (black and white or colorized versions), WAY OUT WEST can be found as a double feature package, along with Laurel and Hardy's other classic, BLOCKHEADS (1938) on DVD. Presented on various cable television channels in later years, including the Comedy Channel (late 1980s), American Movie Classics (1994-96) and finally Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere: April 1, 2005). As much as SONS OF THE DESERT (1933) and BABES IN TOYLAND (1934) have become best loved Laurel and Hardy products, WAY OUT WEST will definitely be no disappointment either. Commence to laughing. (***1/2)