Way Out West (1937)

hyped garbage

Highly Overrated But Still Good

A Masterpiece!

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy (themselves), James Finlayson (Mickey Finn), Sharon Lynne (Lola Marcel), Stanley Fields (sheriff), Rosina Lawrence (Mary Roberts), James Mason (anxious patron), James C. Morton, Frank Mills, Dave Pepper (bartenders), Vivien Oakland (stagecoach passenger/Molly, sheriff's wife), Harry Bernard (man eating at bar), Mary Gordon, May Wallace (cooks), Avalon Boys Quartet: Chill Wills, Art Green, Walter Trask, Don Brookins (themselves), Jack Hill (worker at Mickey Finn's), Sam Lufkin (stagecoach baggage man), Tex Driscoll (bearded miner), Flora Finch (Maw, miner's wife), Fred "Snowflake" Toones (janitor), Bobby Dunn, John Ince, Fritzi Brunette, Frank Montgomery, Fred Cady, Eddie Borden, Bill Wolf, Denver Dixon (aka Art Mix), Ben Corbett, Buffalo Bill Jr (aka Jay Wilsey), Cy Slocum (audience at saloon), Lester Dorr (cowboy), "Dinah" the mule, and Ham Kinsey (double for Mr Laurel), Cy Slocum (double for Mr Hardy), Chill Wills (basso voice dubber for Mr Laurel), Rosina Lawrence (falsetto voice dubber for Mr Laurel). Directed by JAMES W. HORNE. Photographed by Art Lloyd and Walter Lundin. Photographic effects by Roy Seawright. Edited by Bert Jordan. Story by Jack Jevne and Charles Rogers. Screenplay by Charles Rogers, Felix Adler, and James Parrott. Musical score and direction by Marvin Hatley. Sound by William Randall. Art direction by Arthur Royce. Songs: "Trail of the Lonesome Pine" (Hardy and Laurel) by Harry Carroll and Ballard MacDonald; "Commence to Dancing" (sung by the Avalon Boys, danced by Hardy and Laurel) by J.L. Hill. Additional background music composed by LeRoy Shield, Egbert Van Alstyne, Nathaniel Shilkret, Irving Berlin, Franz von Suppe, Eddie Leonard, Eddie Munson. Set decorator: William L. Stevens. Make-up: Jack Dawn. Production manager: Sidney S. Van Keuren. Producer: Stan Laurel. Executive producer: Hal Roach.Copyright 9 April 1937 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corp. Presented by Hal Roach Studios. New York opening at the Rialto: 3 May 1937. U.S. release: 16 April 1937. 7 reels. 65 minutes.SYNOPSIS: With the possible exception of Sons of the Desert, which was subtler if not funnier, Way Out West must rank as the best of all the Laurel & Hardy features. Not only is it pure, unadulterated Laurel & Hardy, with no time wasted on subsidiary plotting or romantic or musical "relief", but it is also a first-rate satire of the Western genre. — William K. Everson in "The Films of Laurel and Hardy". NOTES: Marvin Hatley was nominated for an Academy Award for his Music Score, losing to One Hundred Men and a Girl. Tiny Sandford was originally cast as the menacing sheriff, but his scenes were re-shot with Stanley Fields. Uncredited script contributors were Arthur Vernon Jones (in the initial stages) and director James W. Horne. Art Lloyd was the movie's initial photographer.In 1975, a record of Laurel and Hardy's "Trail of the Lonesome Pine" duet was lifted from the sound track and issued in the United Kingdom and Eire. It proved astonishingly popular, eventually making it right up to the number two spot on the Hit Parade charts, grossing well over £1 million in record sales. The song provided by the Avalon Boys quartet is usually given as the 1905 hit, "At the Ball, That's All", which Laurel and Hardy "Commence to Dancing". Sharon Lynne, accompanied by a chorus of saloon cuties, also has a song, "Won't You Be My Lovey Dovey?" At the fade-out, Laurel, Hardy and Rosina Lawrence chortle "We're Going To Go Way Down To Dixie". The film commenced shooting on 27 August 1936, winding up in early November. COMMENT: One of the funniest of the features, and one of the most suitable for modern viewing as it is not disfigured by some of the vicious tit-for-tat nonsense that L & H often indulged in. The pace is fast, and the music score for once is not only apposite, it's actually a major asset. The boys do a delightful little jig as they listen to the Avalon Boys, and later chorus it up at the bar. The saloon girls' songs are a delight too. The dialogue is funny, the situations amusing. L & H and the entire cast, particularly Sharon Lynne, play with gusto. Hardy's side expressions are a joy.The concluding shots of the present TV prints have for some reason been cut, so that Hardy no longer steps into the pot-hole — which spoils the cumulative effect of one of the film's principal running gags.Impossible to split the photography credit (one doubtless did locations). Horne's direction is more accomplished than usual.

Charged with delivering a gold mine deed to an heiress who they have never seen or met, two bumbling friends haplessly try to correct their mistake after being tricked into given the deed to the wrong women in this feature length Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy comedy. Often cited as one of the pair's funniest full length features, 'Way Out West' has some terrific moments for sure as Hardy tries eating a hat after watching Laurel enjoy eating his, as Hardy accidentally knocks on a bald man's head, and as the pair hitch a ride 'It Happened One Night' style, and yet there is no escaping how paper thin the plot is. Indeed, even at less than 70 minutes, the movie feels on the long side with the story basically just consisting of repeated failed attempts to retrieve the deed. The fact that Stan and Ollie do not appear on screen for six and a half minutes does not help matters, nor does the heavy reliance on slapstick gags - particularly head banging incidents. The film actually has some really good dialogue -- "we hope he is - they buried him" comments Stan in a deadpan manner after the fake heiress asks whether her relative is really dead. And yet, while more verbal gags like this would have perhaps been beneficial, the comedy duo are admittedly slapstick experts and the film is often funny if a tad disjointed and episodic. The Old West sets and costumes are pretty good too.

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.