To my mind, "Mo More West" is the best of the six Bert Lahr shorts that are now available in the "Ultra Rare Pre-Code Comedies" series offered on an Alpha/Oldies DVD.
In this entry, the voluble Lahr himself is in really fine form - in fact he never stops talking. Perhaps I should say that Lahr never stops shouting. At any rate, he dominates all the proceedings to such an extent that he not only appears in almost every shot, but he has easily ten times as much dialogue as anyone else in the cast. In fact, all the other players are obviously all just along to feed Lahr his lines and bits of "business".
Admittedly, unlike the rest of the cast, Florence Auer (who plays Lahr's wife) does actually get indulged with a few close-ups, but this happens only because she and Bert are no longer standing cheek to cheek in the same set. Florence is still in New York, while Bert is in the wild west.
Aside from Florence Auer, everyone else in the movie, including Harry Shannon's bank robber and Charley Grapewin's judge, is simply subordinated or even wiped out by the dominating Lahr.
None the less, if you like Lahr's brand of humor (and I must admit that I myself am in this circle) you will enjoy not only this movie, but his other short films on the Oldies DVD.
In this entry, the voluble Lahr himself is in really fine form - in fact he never stops talking. Perhaps I should say that Lahr never stops shouting. At any rate, he dominates all the proceedings to such an extent that he not only appears in almost every shot, but he has easily ten times as much dialogue as anyone else in the cast. In fact, all the other players are obviously all just along to feed Lahr his lines and bits of "business".
Admittedly, unlike the rest of the cast, Florence Auer (who plays Lahr's wife) does actually get indulged with a few close-ups, but this happens only because she and Bert are no longer standing cheek to cheek in the same set. Florence is still in New York, while Bert is in the wild west.
Aside from Florence Auer, everyone else in the movie, including Harry Shannon's bank robber and Charley Grapewin's judge, is simply subordinated or even wiped out by the dominating Lahr.
None the less, if you like Lahr's brand of humor (and I must admit that I myself am in this circle) you will enjoy not only this movie, but his other short films on the Oldies DVD.