Topic: Out West (1947)

[metaldams]

http://www.threestooges.net/filmography/episode/99
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039687/?ref_=fn_al_tt_3

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ELTSlYveMno

Watch PISTOL PACKIN' NITWITS in the link above

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XoZ9mq9YnB8

Watch OUT WEST in the link above



      I'm going to include a link to the 1944 Columbia short PISTOL PACKIN' NITWITS as well.  The second half of this short has similar plot elements as OUT WEST, including a singing Christine McIntyre in the same role.  Interestingly, Harry Langdon and Edward Bernds are credited with the story here while Clyde Bruckman is credited in OUT WEST.  Eerily, considering what we just saw with Curly, Harry Langdon was dead about weeks or a month after (depending on source), filming this short from a stroke.  A legend in my eyes, please don't judge him by this film, he's not anywhere near his best.   Also, according to imdb, this is the first film Edward Bernds directed, even though Harry Edwards gets screen credit.

      OK, now onto OUT WEST itself.  I do enjoy this short, though I have to admit I enjoyed it more years ago than I do now.  What I find most interesting is how story oriented this short is.  I can't say this for most Stooge films.  For example, in HOW HIGH IS UP?, as awesome as the sweater scene is, it doesn't really need to last that long to advance the plot.  Not that I'm complaining, mind you.  In OUT WEST, pretty much every gag, whether it's Moe and Larry making the drink for the villains, sawing Larry out of jail, Shemp talking about his vein to Doc Barker...it's all story advancement.  The lone exception is the shoot you for the drinks bit, which is less than manly (they can't hold their drinks) character development than plot advancement.  A fun bit for sure, I've always enjoyed Shemp's reaction and his "smooth as silk" line delivery.


      I also enjoy Moe and Larry mixing the drink.  I like the way Moe accidentally puts paint in there and remedies the problem by including paint remover.  I also enjoy Larry's almost stoic reaction as Moe breaks an egg over his forehead.  Another funny bit is Shemp's delayed reaction after Moe saws him in the ear.  Shemp continues talking as if nothing happens, and then all of the sudden he reacts seconds later.  I enjoy subtle little bits like that, great comic anti-timing.

      Christine McIntyre and Jock Mahoney are pretty good in this one, but I have to admit, they played basically the same role years later in PUNCHY COWPUNCHERS to much better effect.  Don't really have too much more to say.  No all-time stand out classic gags, just random subtle gags that are entertaining and pretty smooth story telling overall.

8/10

[Shemp_Diesel]

Don't know if I have a whole to add this week--I've never been too wild about this one. It seems more like a straight western with random bits of stoogey-ness thrown in. Maybe Ed Bernds was shooting for a subtle western parody, I'm not sure. At any rate, he did much better with the later Punchy Cowpunchers.

The boys just seem too subdued in these wild west settings for my liking. The card game is alright & things pick up a bit during the very good "breaking Larry out of jail" scene--but when I want my big belly laughs, I think I may have to wait until next week....


6 out of 10....

[Squirrelbait]

I've never really been too much of a western fan, but this one still had some good laughs. Shemp accidentally lights a stick of dynamite without knowing, just as Curly did with the bomb in Spook Louder. This also qualifies as one of the few episodes where Moe refers to the Stooges as, well....the STOOGES!

Never in the history of motion pictures has the United States Cavalry been TOO LATE!

6.5/10

One more question, since the studio bigshots at Columbia were reluctant to have Shemp replace Curly, for fear that he and Moe looked too much alike, I am curious as to how they explained Curly's absence to the general movie-going public. All of a sudden, he's been replaced by a new guy - surely people had to wonder. Were they aware of his illness?

[Paul Pain]

This is a difficult short to judge, but I actually enjoy the Stooge westerns.  Could it have been better?  Yeah, but it's OK as it is.  Nothing overly memorable here.

Best part: mixing the drinks and the boys fumbling with the hose (a hose in a saloon?!) to spray Doc Barker.

8/10

[Dr. Hugo Gansamacher]

Not one of my favorite shorts. "A straight western with random bits of stoogey-ness thrown in" (Shemp_Diesel): that seems to me to size it up pretty well.

One a bit of humor that seems to me to rise above the routine occurs when Doc Barker sees Moe and Larry with his coat and realizes the significance of Moe's words of pig Latin to Shemp at the beginning of the card game: "Ickey-may!" he says as he advances on them.

[Dr. Hugo Gansamacher]

I'm going to include a link to the 1944 Columbia short PISTOL PACKIN' NITWITS as well.  The second half of this short has similar plot elements as OUT WEST, including a singing Christine McIntyre in the same role.

And Dick Curtis in a role similar to the one he had in The Three Troubledoers.

Well, that was some instructive viewing. I was familiar with all the copying that goes on from one Stooge short to another, but knew nothing of the copying from shorts by other actors into the Stooge shorts. Langdon and Brendel look to be of about the same height as the Stooges, too. There must have been a lot of very short men doing comedy in those days!

[Lefty]

Out West isn't exactly Top Ten material, but it had its good moments, such as Moe and Larry mixing the drinks, the ratcheting sound when Shemp's knee buckles ("The leg does feel as good as new"), as I feel on occasion; getting Larry out of the cooler, and the Stooges blowing up the bad guys.

But there are a couple of things that boggle the mind:
1.  How would Doc Barker know that the drawing of Shemp's vain was worth millions?  Granted, he didn't say millions of what.
2.  Quirt was passing aces to Doc Barker, or so he thought, but Shemp was intercepting them with his foot and passing lower-value cards to Barker.  So at the end of the game, shouldn't Barker have had 8-10 cards and Quirt 2 or fewer?

[metaldams]

And Dick Curtis in a role similar to the one he had in The Three Troubledoers.

Well, that was some instructive viewing. I was familiar with all the copying that goes on from one Stooge short to another, but knew nothing of the copying from shorts by other actors into the Stooge shorts. Langdon and Brendel look to be of about the same height as the Stooges, too. There must have been a lot of very short men doing comedy in those days!

Good observation about Dick Curtis, you're correct.

There's tons of copying from other Columbia shorts into Stooge shorts and other non Columbia silents and early talkies into Stooge shorts as well.  I've seen it so much I'm numb to it, but consider guys like Clyde Bruckman and Felix Adler worked for decades before they were with the Stooges and they recycled their own gags and stories.  A very common practice.

As far as the height thing, other than Laurel and Hardy, just about every major comic from the first half of the twentieth century was either an average 5'9" at the tallest, or in the low fives as the norm.  Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton were short men as well.

[Big Chief Apumtagribonitz]

I'm with Lefty: not top ten, but plenty of good gags.

[Kopfy2013]

ZZZZZzzzzzz   The only  thing I can say about this short is  that there is a storyline. No laughing parts and only one or two guffaws elicited.

I give this short a 4.   It could be lower but I need room for the Besser shorts.

P.S. McIntyre did well in this short.

[Larrys#1]

This is a weak episode. Not much funny bits here. I did like the card game and the part where Moe and Larry mix the drinks. Nothing much else that I really cared for. Unfortunately, Shemp started off with bad scripts to work with but it gets better later on.

Nothing much else to say. The episode doesn't do much for me.

7/10

[stoogerascalfan62]

I don't think it's that bad. The highlight for me is when the cavalry appears too late toward the end. Stanley Blystone was great as the commander.

[Paul Pain]

No, the highlight is the way the cavalry left.  Those horses ran back ***wards.

[metaldams]

https://www.threestooges.net/filmography/episode/243

The Ben Blue short, “Very Close Veins,” has a similar plot device with the comic having a vein on his leg that’s expanded and the doctor orders he goes to a different climate.  A similar map is drawn by a doctor and showing the map to local folks of the new climate has them mistake it for a map to find gold.  Similar lines about taking a pick shovel and blasting the vein, as the comic mistakes that line being intended for his leg, are also in both films.  Also in both films is Shemp, though Ben Blue is the main comic and Shemp plays a funny supporting role.

[Dr. Mabuse]

A strangely claustrophobic Stooge western with very few outdoor shots.  Memorable ending, but mostly hit-and-miss.  Curly in his prime would have kicked this up a notch.

6/10

[Daddy Dewdrop]

Coming in at #164 on my worst-to-first countdown, we have "Out West."  Yet another lukewarm western adventure.  A little too conventional and plot heavy for a classic Stooges short.  Just not enough laughs overall to rank any higher.

#164. Out West