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Way Out West By the Numbers


Production cost: Exact number unavailable. (According to the official L&H website, it had only one-fourth of the budget of the Marx Brothers' comedy Western Go West [1940]. And according to Joe Adamson's Marx Bros. book, Go West's chase climax alone cost $200,000.)

Box-office - domestic gross: $362,828

Length of time taken to write the script: approximately 3 months

Length of time to film the movie: approximately 2 and one-half months

Number of working titles for the film before settling on Way Out West: 3

Number of previous movies using Way Out West as a title: 2


"Now you're taking me illiterally"
We counted these so that you don't have to

Number of gags from Way Out West reprised in The Bullfighters (1945): 2 (Ollie repeating something for Stan's benefit, Stan sitting on Ollie's lap instead of in his own chair)

Number of "rubber" gags: 2 (Stan's obtrusive toe getting snapped by Ollie, Ollie's neck getting elongated)

Number of thumb-lighting instances: Stan, 3; Ollie, 1

Number of bites taken out of Ollie's hat: Stan, 3; Ollie, 1

Number of Ollie's direct looks to the camera: 14

Number of cutaways to Ollie's camera looks: 6

Number of cutaways to James Finlayson's reaction shots: 12

Number of cutaways to reaction shots of Vivien Oakland's discomfort: 4

Number of edits/cuts in the number "At the Ball, That's All": 5

Number of times the lyrics of "At the Ball, That's All" are sung: 6

Number of dogs who try to eat Stan's shoe-leather steak: 5

Pieces of clothing disrobed by Ollie in the "locket" scene: 5 (hat, coat, fake collar, shirt, underpants)

Number of times the deed changes hands in the "deed retrieval" scene: 14

Number of times the deed is blown across the room: 4

Length of laughter sustained by Stan in the "tickling" scene: 2 minutes, 30 seconds

Number of times Stan spits on his hands to moisten the rope: 3

Number of falls sustained by Ollie after being hoisted by the block-and-tackle: 2

Number of times each person is pulled down by the other via the rope: Ollie, 3; Stan, 1

Number of "ssh's" uttered: Stan, 12; Ollie, 10; Dinah the Mule, 1

Length of Stan's pantomime, where he re-tells (to Mary) the movie's story up to that point: 10 seconds

Number of times Finn says "What are you gonna do?" in the penultimate scene: 5

Number of times that a "trademark" gag is used: 1 each for Ollie's tie-twiddle and James Finlayson's "D'oh!"

Number of times Ollie is dunked in the stream: 3


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