Way Out West

Laurel and Hardy in Way Out West.

Way Out West is an hour and five minutes of pure comic joy. It is filled with great slapstick. Slapstick might not be for everyone but this is one example of it at its absolute best. It is charming, silly, inventive and sprinkled throughout with verbal humor. Laurel and Hardy are among the best of the talking slapstick clowns, along with the Marx Brothers and W. C. Fields.

As the title suggests this is a western. Our heroes are on a mission to deliver the deed to a huge goldmine to a young girl. Stan and Ollie, in their peerless fashion, promptly deliver the papers into the hands of the girl's nefarious guardian, the owner of the town's saloon. He tricks the boys by telling them that his saloon-gal wife is really Mary Roberts, the girl they are looking for. Sharon Lynn is hilarious as Lola Marcel. She is basically imitating Mae West but she handles the physical bits like a pro.

There is one scene where the boys do an impromptu soft-shoe number. This must be one of the funniest dance scenes from any movie. In another scene Stan does a parody of Claudette Colbert's hitchhiking technique from It Happened One Night.

Way Out West is an impeccable example of lowbrow humor that stands the test of time.