This film is Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy’s best feature effort. The script, gags and characters work perfectly together. The film works as one expects from a Laurel and Hardy film. Laurel plays Stanley, the thin submissive dimwit, and Hardy plays Ollie, the portly smug leader. But the twist is that the comic duo has fun with the conventions of the Western.
Laurel and Hardy are on a mission out West to deliver a gold mine deed to Mary Roberts (Rosina Lawrence, THE LITTLE RASCALS), whom inherited it after her father died. When her guardian Mickey Finn (James Finlayson, JULIA MISBEHAVES) and his dance hall girlfriend Lola Marcel (Sharon Lynn) find out, they plan to trick Laurel and Hardy into getting the deed for themselves. Once they do and Stan and Oliver discover the truth, the comic heroes dedicate themselves to getting it back.
The gags are woven into the script seamlessly. Some gags even get revisited at later parts in the film for additional laughs. Amazingly, they're rarely telegraphed. And like other Laurel and Hardy films, its not necessarily the main gag that gets the biggest laugh, but the unexpected reaction from another character. Note Ollie’s reaction after Stanley eats the hat. Their sense of pacing reaches frantic levels in some scenes, which takes perfect timing to pull off. A great example is when Ollie and Stanley are fighting with Finn and Lola for the deed and Stanley is bewitched by the vamp. While the idiot and blowhard duo has been repeated on screen for decades, no one has done it better than Laurel and Hardy. They understood how to make both characters idiots, without making them simply dumb and dumber.
Though the plot is simple, it still builds tension and support for what is going on with the characters. Like the Marx Bros., musical numbers are thrown in to make it grander. The score was actually nominated for an Oscar. But unlike many of the Marx Bros.'s films, Laurel and Hardy were the main characters, making us care about what happens as much what makes us laugh. As a spoof, its pokes at the Western genre are timeless. In VARIETY, upon its initial release, a reviewer stated the film would be forgotten compared to the duo's previous work. Funny how initial impressions fade over time when chronology begins to fade, and individual merit is allowed to shine through more fully. This is a slapstick classic for good reason — Laurel and Hardy are masters.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
