sol- 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.

thejcowboy22 A compilation of gags,pratfalls,physical comedy, funny dialogue song and dance makes this Laurel & Hardy adventure all the more entertaining. There's a tickling scene as a fight for a deed to a gold mine ensues resulting in an infectious laughing from Stanley. The only mystery about this movie with all their clumsiness is how did they pick the lock on the security gate? The block and tackle scene is also memorable as things fall in reverse as the Mule is airlifted but that you'll have to witness for yourself. Ollie receives most of the abuse in the department of physical comedy falling into deep puddles and getting his head stuck in a floor. Seeing is believing and I believe that this comedy is one of their best!

classicsoncall When I plug "Way Out West" into my list of Laurel and Hardy movies I've seen, it ranks right up there at the top of their feature films, and just one spot shy of their 1929 short, "Big Business". But I haven't seen nearly enough of their pictures so that's bound to change at some point. But for right now, this is probably my favorite L&H flick with a great combination of gags and funny bits. The topper for me was their soft shoe shuffle to 'At The Ball', I could watch that segment over and over again.Of course, the story line is pretty funny too, with James Finlayson and Sharon Lynn unsuccessfully trying to put one over on the Boys. With Finlayson portraying a character named Mickey Finn what would you expect. Their four player free-for-all trying to retrieve the deed to the gold mine was hysterical, topped only by Stan's laughing jag when accosted by Lola (Lynn) in their bit together. How can you sit expressionless when Stan starts in with his laughing fit, it's so infectious you can't help yourself.I guess it must have helped that Stan Laurel co-produced this picture with long time collaborator Hal Roach. By this time Stan must have had a pretty good idea what worked for him and his partner, including oft repeated gags like the one in which Ollie sinks into the only hole in an entire river, two times no less. In recent weeks, I've seen that gag at least three other times in their short films - "Putting Pants on Philip" (1927), "Habeas Corpus" (1928), and "Angora Love" (1929). Hey, if it worked once...

mark.waltz It's a truly ticklish situation for Stan Laurel when he encounters the voluptuous Sharon Lynne who attempts to get the deed to a gold mine away from him that Stan and Oliver (Hardy) were attempting to deliver to the innocent Rosalina Lawrence. What is funnier, Laurel laughing hysterically as Lynne reaches into his shirt to get the deed, tickling possibly more than his funny bone, or the fact that Lynne is married to the much older James Finlayson, the perpetrator of this scam? This is along with "Sons of the Desert" possibly Laurel and Hardy's funniest feature, and one which totally stands the test of time. Yes, the entire situation is preposterous, but the laughs come a mile a minute, going much faster than the wagon which bypasses Laurel and Hardy as they try to thumb a ride. The fact that Laurel gets a wagon train to pull to a complete stop by exposing his leg (a la Claudette Colbert) gives a hysterically funny insinuation which managed to go right past the censors of the Hays code.The comedy gets off to a wet start with Laurel and his mule pal carrying a sleeping Oliver through a river and basically dumping him there for possibly the world's first water bed. Then, there's trouble aboard the stagecoach as the two flirt with the wife of the town's sheriff where they are heading to, and continues with the scam perpetuated against them by Finlayson and Lynne. Rosalina Lawrence, best known as one of the school teachers on the Our Gang series, is merely adequate as the heroine, but Finlayson and Lynne are downright hysterical. A funny twist involving the boys trying to get into their house during the middle of the night is guaranteed to give the viewer chest pains from laughing, including such props as the forlorn mule and a strategically placed bucket. This is farce at its best, coming in a year that focused mainly on the sophisticated screwball comedy of the major studios, and it certainly places amongst the best of that year as far as classic comedy is concerned.