Way Out West (Laurel & Hardy 1937)

'Way Out West', glorious though it is, probably confirms that for my taste at least the feature length was a step too far for Laurel and Hardy. In shorts, they were perfect, frequently perfect, but in features- and this is surely the best of them all- there's just a little too much flab, too many scenes that should have been trimmed or even snipped out completely.
I don't know, maybe that's harsh.
Maybe I need to lay my cards on the table and say that I think 20-30 minutes is the premium for all comedy media- you cross that line and you're into diminishing returns. Maybe ultimately that's my problem then- I'm not sure any comedy feature is ever going to give me exactly what I'm looking for. But 'Way Out West' comes much, much closer than most. I could have done without the scenes of the Boys trying to reclaim the goldmine deed at night- this dragged. There were fine touches, but I didn't want to be watching it. The stuff with the mule, and Ollie going up and down with the ropes- there was nothing wrong with it, but it was a long and pretty pointless scene where I didn't want a long and pretty pointless scene to be. I can be a perfectionist you know.
Ah, but now let's bask in some of the glories that came before. The plot of course- Stan and Ollie are somehow entrusted with handing over the deeds to a young saloon worker whose father has just died. Her guardains try and trick her out of her inheritance. Finn, in particular, was never better than here- there's a gurning aside he gives to camera qute early on, just before Laurel and Hardy meet the conniving Sharon Lynn for the first time I think, that is absolutely magical. I think it's filed away in the Flickr album of my mind's eye for all time. In his own way James Finlayson was a legend, and I think we should pause for a second to appreciate him...
The musical numbers worked better here too than in any other Stan and Ollie film I've seen- the film didn't stop to accommodate them, and more to the point the entertainment didn't stop to accommodate them. They worked well as musical numbers, and they were funny.
And surely the tickling scene with Stan and Sharon Lynn is one of the most perversely sexual things ever to find its way on to film? Maybe it's me again. Maybe I need to keep quiet.