Way Out West

John Chard

The boys spoof the western with joyous results. Running at just over one hour long, this Laurel & Hardy film is a none stop gag fest, both visually and orally. Perhaps more well known for being the film that contains the famous "Trail Of The Lonesome Pine" sequence, it should be noted that that scene is merely a part of a structured romp. Stan & Ollie are asked to deliver a gold mine deed to a young lady by the name of Mary Roberts (Rosina Lawrence), naturally they get embroiled in some daft shenanigans as they are duped by the devious duo of Mickey Finn (a delightfully fiendish James Finlayson) & Lola Marcel (Sharon Lynne) into handing over the deed to them instead of the rightful heir. After learning they have been conned we then follow the chaotic attempts of Stan & Ollie to recover the deed and give it to the real Mary. Watch as the boys get maximum laughter out of a hole in Stan's shoe, see Ollie's neck stretched, you will believe that a mule can fly, and embrace the rib tickler that is a saloon chase sequence late in the piece. Throw in a delightful dance routine the guys do to "At The Ball, That's All," and you have a simple recipe brought to the boil with wonderful results. End result? Comedy gold. 9/10

CinemaSerf

This one sees our hapless duo sent on a mission to deliver the title deeds for a gold mine to the unsuspecting “Mary” (Rosina Lawrence). On the face of it, their task is actually going quite well. They arrive in the correct town and they haven’t lost the paperwork. No sooner do they encounter “Mickey Finn” (James Finlayson) though, than the wheels start to come off. Stan can’t keep his trap shut, and when “Mickey” realises that they have no idea what his ward looks like, he engages his pal “Lola” (Sharon Lynn) to impersonate “Mary”. Transaction sorted, and off they go - straight into the arms of an affable young gal who points out that she is the real intended for this largesse, so these two are going to have to go back and wrest the document, and a locket, from this unscrupulous pairing. All the while, the boys have an irate sheriff (Stanley Fields) on their back who wants them out of town after they inadvertently offended his wife (Vivien Oakland) on their stagecoach journey into “Brushwood Gulch”! What chance they can sort out this chaos? Of course jeopardy isn’t the name of the game, here, but along the way we have plenty of perfectly paced slapstick from two men who’s synchronised comedy timing works engagingly here. Finlayson also shines, joyously exuding the kind of dastardliness that used to tie damsels to railway tracks. Now I do think this film is too long and at times the scenarios are just a bit too obviously played out; but coupled together with a few cheery ditties - not least, “The Trail of the Lonesome Pine”, and some wonderfully bemused facial expressions from Laurel this takes a fun swipe at the pioneering spirit, elementary engineering and a good old dose of prospecting greed!