Reel Classics: Way Out West

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, two kind-heart­ed souls, are head­ed out West to try to locate a young lady by the name of Mary Roberts.  They are accom­pa­nied by their faith­ful mule, Dinah.  They pos­sess the deed to a gold mine that was owned by Mary’s father.  As he was dying, they promised him they would find his daugh­ter and tell her of his death and deliv­er the deed to her—providing her with a very large inher­i­tance.  She resides in the Western town called Brushwood Gulch and lives and works in the local saloon owned by her legal guardians Mickey Finn (James Finlayson) and his wife Lola (Sharon Lynn). 

As we first meet Stan and Ollie they are trav­el­ing, with Stan lead­ing Dinah and Ollie lying on a sled pulled by Dinah.  Very com­fort­able for Ollie until they cross a riv­er, when the sled breaks away from Dinah. They decide to hitch a ride into Brushwood Gulch and, bor­row­ing a scene from It Happened One Night where Claudette Colbert raised her skirt and showed her leg to get a car to stop, Stan rais­es his pants leg to show his leg to get the stage­coach to stop. 

On board the stage they meet a lady and begin some flir­ta­tious behav­ior.  What they don’t know is that she is the wife of the sher­iff of Brushwood Gulch and their behav­ior does not sit well with her.  Upon their arrival in Brushwood Gulch the lady is met by her hus­band who threat­ens Stan and Ollie—telling them to leave town on the next stage or they will leave in a hearse. 

The next scene is prob­a­bly the most famous scene from the film as the boys approach Mickey Finn’s saloon.  In front of the saloon a group of per­form­ers, “The Avalon Boys,” are play­ing and singing and Stan and Ollie begin to do a dance (more about that lat­er). Inside the saloon, they meet Mickey Finn and explain their mis­sion to him.  He imme­di­ate­ly sees an oppor­tu­ni­ty to take advan­tage of the sit­u­a­tion and con­vinces the boys that his wife Lola is Mary so they will give the deed to her. After inform­ing who they believe to be Mary of the death of her father, they proud­ly present her with the deed. Stanley says to her “Now that you’ve got the mine, I’ll bet you’ll be a swell gold digger.”

Not too long after that they meet the real Mary and real­ize they have been conned.  They are deter­mined to get the deed back and get it to its right­ful own­er. Their efforts to break into the saloon at night, with the assis­tance of Dinah the mule, pro­vides mul­ti­ple hilar­i­ous moments.  As usu­al, no spoil­ers here but I’m guess­ing you can fig­ure out how it all ends. 

Way Out West was released in 1937 and was Laurel and Hardy’s 12^th fea­ture film appear­ance for the Hal Roach Studios.  They had first unit­ed as a team in 1927 and made mul­ti­ple silent and sound shorts through the 1920s and 1930s.  In the 1930s they were at the height of their fame. 

I men­tioned above the scene with the dance rou­tine by Laurel and Hardy.  It has been praised many times over the years. A review on the “Laurel and Hardy Central” web­site sums it up: “The dance in which the Boys engage would not rival Fred and Ginger for intri­ca­cy, but I am hard pressed to think of a more per­fect two min­utes in all American film... Why is it that this scene evokes such a mix of emo­tions?  Part of the answer may be that few scenes in movie his­to­ry come so close to cap­tur­ing pure inno­cence and unbri­dled joy.  This is how we would all act if we did­n’t know (or care) that oth­ers were watch­ing us.” 

Along with the dance scene, there are sev­er­al oth­er musi­cal inter­ludes includ­ing the scene where Stan and Ollie sing “The Trail of the Lonesome Pine” and, with Mary, “I Want to Be in Dixie.”  The music group “The Avalon Boys” are fea­tured and the lead singer is Chill Wills. He went on to play in mul­ti­ple films in his career (includ­ing an Oscar nom­i­nat­ed per­for­mance in The Alamo). Way Out West received a nom­i­na­tion for an acad­e­my award for “Best Music, Score.” 

James Finlayson, who played Mickey Finn, was a reg­u­lar in Hal Roach Studio films and appears in many of the Laurel and Hardy films.  Another Hal Roach Studio reg­u­lar was Dinah the mule.  She had pre­vi­ous­ly appeared with Laurel and Hardy in their Oscar win­ning short The Music Box.  She can also be found in Our Gang’s Honky Donkey and many oth­er films in the 1930s.  She actu­al­ly got cred­it in this one and is list­ed in the cast for this film as “Herself.” 

One of the fun­ni­est scenes from Way Out West is when Stan has got­ten the deed from Lola and she tries to get it back from him by wrestling and tick­ling him.  His laugh­ter is so infec­tious that if you look close­ly you can she she too is laugh­ing in the scene. 

The town of Brushwood Gulch has made an appear­ance in oth­er well known film ven­tures.  It was built on the site of the Monogram Ranch which had been used in mul­ti­ple west­erns begin­ning in 1915.  In 1952 the ranch was pur­chased by Gene Autry, and we see the town in the clas­sic west­ern High Noon as well as in the open­ing scene for the long-run­ning TV series Gunsmoke. 

Way Out West was includ­ed in the American Film Institutes 2000 list of films nom­i­nat­ed for the Top 100 Funniest American Movies.  A review on Turner Classic Movies (TCM) states “Laurel and Hardy, much like the Marx Brothers, would have to wait for their some­times rick­ety pic­tures to with­stand the test of time before they’d be tru­ly accept­ed as com­ic genius­es.  Though their movies con­tained lit­tle ban­ter, the fact that they still leave mod­ern audi­ences in stitch­es speaks vol­umes about their gifts.” 

A fair­ly recent review (2011) in The Guardian stat­ed “Way Out West, aside from being sil­ly, warm and fun­ny, reminds those of us caught up in a world where what seems to mat­ter most is the here and now, the get­ting of things done far too quick­ly for any­one’s hap­pi­ness, being first, being over­ly seri­ous and judg­men­tal, that life is often a bizarre, if enter­tain­ing, com­e­dy of fools.  Child or adult, Way Out West--”Cuckoo Song” and all—laughs at us as we laugh with Stan and Ollie.”

One of the scenes that has stuck with me (and I have shared it with friends often) is a scene where Stan and Ollie are with Mary. She informs them that she is from the South and would like to return there.

Oliver: “Well, fan my brow!  I’m from the South!”

Mary: “You are?”

Stan: “Well, shut my mouth! I’m from the South too!”

Oliver: “The South of what, sir?”

Stan: “The South of London.”

Way Out West is a fun­ny film that, in my opin­ion, shows Laurel and Hardy at the height of their comedic out­put.  They were deemed the Kings of Comedy at the Hal Roach Studios for a rea­son.  Though filmed over eighty years ago, this movie still enter­tains audi­ences today.  Rotten Tomatoes gives Way Out West an audi­ence score of 91% and a crit­ics score of 100%.  The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) rates it at 7.6 of 10.  I found Way Out West avail­able for free stream­ing on Pluto TV.  Unfortunately, it is not avail­able at the Clark County Public Library (though they do have a col­lec­tion of Laurel and Hardy films available).

Information for this Reel Classic review was gath­ered from Internet Movie Data Base (IMDb), Rotten Tomatoes, Turner Classic Movies (TCM) and Wikipedia.

I’ll be back soon with the next Reel Classic, but before I leave you with the trail­er below let me remind you that if you enjoy these clas­sic movies please join me on the sec­ond Tuesday of each month at 6 PM at the Clark County Public Library for “Ron Kibbey’s Comedy Classics.”  I present a clas­sic com­e­dy film usu­al­ly accom­pa­nied by a vin­tage car­toon.  Popcorn and drinks are pro­vid­ed.  More infor­ma­tion about the next film is avail­able on the library’s web­site and Facebook page, as well as WinCity Voices Facebook page.