Way Out West (1937) - full review!
One of the better (Stan) Laurel and (Oliver) Hardy comedies has the boys going West to find the daughter of a deceased miner in order to give her the deed to his mine, full of riches. Unfortunately, once they reach their destination, the first people they run into are con artists who conspire to steal the deed for their own as they try to simultaneously become the legal guardians of the miner's daughter, Mary Roberts (Rosina Lawrence), who works in their saloon establishment. Mickey Finn (James Finlayson) and saloon singer Lola Marcel (Sharon Lynne) are the would-be thieves. It's musical Score was nominated for an Academy Award (Marvin Hatley's first Oscar recognition). It was directed by James Horne, with a story by Jack Jevne & Charley Rogers, who wrote the screenplay with Felix Adler & James Parrott.
The film features the comedy duo doing a synchronized dance routine to singing by the Avalon Boys, appearing as themselves with their lead singer Chill Wills. Stanley Fields appears as the Sheriff determined to run "the boys" out of town, oblivious to the subterfuge being perpetrated by Mickey and Lola. After Stanley inadvertently lets Mickey know the reason for their visit to town, Ollie brings him further into their confidence with the rest of the story. When Mickey, who works Mary as a slave driver would, learns that they don't know what the miner's daughter looks like, he has Lola pretend to be her. All goes according to plan until, when the boys are leaving the establishment, they meet the real Mary. In the longest scene in the film, they are then unsuccessful in retrieving the deed from Lola, who tickles it out of Stan again, and Mickey, who locks it in his safe.
That night, with help from their mule Dinah, Laurel & Hardy try to sneak quietly into the saloon to relieve the safe of its bounty, but of course end up making enough noise to wake the dead. Dinah even ends up on the second floor of the saloon. In a routine that's been copied since in countless cartoons, Mickey pounds on the keys to injure the boys as they hide in a piano. But of course, all works out in the end.
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