By this point, it is abundantly clear that, despite casting a vast net over all forms of cinema, the one subject I am most passionate about (or at least one of them) is comedy. From the start, I have always been attracted to works of art designed to evoke laughter, since it is possible to tell a great deal about society at a particular point in time based on what makes them laugh. I’ve looked at the work of some of the funniest and most iconic figures to ever work in cinema and found merit in almost everything they’ve done. While I have looked at some of their work already, one of the more underrepresented figures in my writing at Laurel and Hardy, the iconic team that reigned supreme for several years and became some of their generation’s most profitable comedic minds, far from an easy feat. Many consider their masterpiece to be Way Out West, in which our protagonists play a pair of lawyers venturing into the Wild West, tasked with delivering the deed to a gold mine to the recently-orphaned daughter of a prominent businessman, only to come across many challenges and obstacles, particularly those placed there by a pair of maniacal opportunists that take advantage of our protagonists’ gullible nature but underestimate their sheer tenacity. Just as hilarious as we expected, and often quite heartfelt, Way Out West is a wonderful comedy that proves the virtue of a story well-told and setpieces designed to enthrall viewers from every possible demographic. Achieving the rare feat of being able to entertain an almost universal audience, all while being exceptionally simple, the film is a masterful achievement, and credit needs to go to everyone involved in its creation, especially the two iconic leads who once again prove that they were amongst the most gifted to ever work in the medium.

Versatility has always been viewed as an important aspect of an actor’s career, with the idea being that someone can only be successful if they can run the gamut of emotions and play a wide range of characters. This is true and we tend to heap the most praise on these actors who showcase their ability to take on a diverse set of characters. However, this doesn’t mean that those who opt to follow a particular path by carving a niche for themselves are any less interesting to watch, which is why we saw several comedic duos and teams being formed, where they often didn’t even change the names of their characters and simply played the same characters (based on their persona) across several films. Laurel and Hardy found a formula that worked, and the pairing of the two proved to be immensely successful, so much so that nearly every film they made was built around their talents, rather than having them adapt their acting style to fit whatever narrative was employed at the start. There aren’t many actors who can draw an audience based solely on their name, which is why it is so magical to see Laurel and Hardy at their peak, playing off one another in a way that proves how much these films relied on their exceptional chemistry with one another, which is the precise reason why these films have stood the test of time and made an exceptionally strong pairing that remains iconic to this very day and seems to show very little sign of fading anytime soon. It also helps that they are both at their absolute peak in this film, their comedic timing being sharper than ever before, and their dancing and singing skills setting the mood for the rest of the film, which is built almost entirely from their exceptionally funny performances.

The quality that normally draws viewers to these films is the sense of reliability – venturing into a Laurel and Hardy film, you know exactly what you are going to get, which is mainly a rapid-fire blend of comedy and music that will run only about an hour in length, but keep you enraptured for the entire running time. It’s this feeling of consistency that allows a film like Way Out West to make a few interesting choices, since viewers know precisely what to expect, and thus will be genuinely surprised at some of the more unique details that don’t define the film, but certainly enrich the experience. This film, like many others starring the duo, is a clever pastiche of musical comedies. The pair had started on the stage, and while this was a different medium altogether, the same sense of theatricality carried over into their films, and they entered into this film prepared to deliver something thoroughly memorable. More than anything else, Laurel and Hardy were driven by the intention of entertaining audiences, and their overall approach was to simply put on a show, which is reflected in every frame of this film, where the zany humour intermingles with some genuinely touching emotions, all tied together through a never-ending cavalcade of sight gags and lovely musical numbers that showcase not only our protagonists’ fantastic gifts, but the expansive supporting cast, which is populated by many fantastic performers who commit wholeheartedly to bringing these stories to life in a way that is earnest and genuine, and ultimately entertaining to the point where we simply cannot resist the charms that drive this story.

One of the reasons Laurel and Hardy have remained the gold standard for comedic cinema is because their style of humour seemingly defies geographical or temporal boundaries – while we may have outgrown the fondness we had for slapstick humour several decades ago (although it is always welcome, especially since multiple modern actors have made their careers from contorting their faces and bodies in hilarious situations), this kind of comedy has not aged, and what was funny in 1937 certainly remains so, at least to a substantial degree, enough to make a film like Way Out West very effective, even by modern standards. Despite our inflated sense of self-importance, it is a universal experience that we are going to find physical humour to be effective, at least to a certain degree, which is how Laurel and Hardy managed to find such immense success, since they played on the most universal of experiences in terms of the broad humour while maintaining a level of sophistication, which ties this film together and makes it such a thorough delight. The combination of slapstick humour, which is primarily based on pratfalls and physical humour, with the sharp, witty writing creates a film that is clearly not interested in only one style of storytelling and instead draws on a number of different styles in its endeavour to do something different. This has prevented the film from ageing in quite the same way as a lot of other comedies from the era, and Laurel and Hardy deserve nothing but credit for having the foresight to not only make a film that could be enjoyed by audiences at the time but also by those nearly ninety years later, who still relish in the madcap adventures of these two eccentric vagabonds and their increasingly absurd relationship that pushes them to their physical and psychological brink.

When audiences think of Laurel and Hardy, it’s usually images from this film that usually spring to mind, even without knowing specifically where they originated. Way Out West is a lot of a fun, a hilarious and irreverent journey through the Wild West, as seen through the perspective of two of the most eccentric comedic minds to ever work in the medium. There is a legitimate claim that this may be one of the very best comedies of the 1930s, which was already a decade in which people like Charlie Chaplin (in films like City Lights and Modern Times), The Marx Brothers (Duck Soup) and W.C. Fields (in It’s a Gift) were at their peak as well. These are all terrific films and Way Out West fits perfectly into this generation of wacky comedies with a genuine sense of heartfulness, which emerges when we least expect it. As two of the most effortlessly entertaining individuals to ever work in cinema, their pairing being one driven by both their extreme physical differences and shared approach to making audiences laugh, Laurel and Hardy are difficult to not admire, even if only based on how they capture such a distinct energy, converting it into the foundation for their hilarious and irreverent comedies that take them to bizarre locations and put them in precarious situations, from which they always manage to escape, but not without overcoming a few obstacles along the way. It can be quite silly, but this is all part of the experience – and there is always value in revisiting these classic works since they represent an era in which comedies weren’t aiming to be revolutionary or daring, but rather set out to entertain viewers with a literal song-and-dance show, of which Laurel and Hardy remain the undisputed masters.