Swiss Miss (1938)

Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

People are voting emotionally.

Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Laurel and Hardy worked best in their shorts. The feature length films they made were too padded out such as with Swiss Miss which had songs that go on and on.Laurel and Hardy have travelled from the USA to Switzerland to sell mouse traps unsuccessfully, after being ripped off by some locals with fake currency they end up working in a hotel as dishwashers. For every dish they break, they have to work extra days. Unfortunately they keep breaking dishes.They encounter a singer who is in disguise as she wants to work at her husband's latest musical which he is writing in the Swiss Alps. Laurel tells Hardy that the lady fancies him!The film works best when it concentrates on the duo such as Stanley trying to coax brandy from a St Bernard or when the two try to move a piano through a drawbridge but get chased by a gorilla.Unfortunately the film does not feature Laurel and Hardy enough and has too many interminable song and dance numbers.

I think this picture gets bashed undeservedly. By 1938 Hal Roach was branching out into other movie genres, and he liked adding music to comedy and comedy to adventure. Laurel and Hardy had been successful in "The Devil's Brother" and "Babes in Toyland", and this film was not a stretch from those. He added good sets, a better than usual supporting cast, and popular music to this picture. Stan, for his part, created gags that were unusual for the team, such as the St. Bernard scene, the piano-bridge scene, and the organ scene. Both men were in the 40's; Stan had been ill and Oliver was really adding weight, and they were less than believable doing banana peel slide routines any more. They all tried mightily to produce a pleasant hybrid movie, but because it wasn't traditional L&H picture they got resentment instead. The light was visible at the end of the tunnel for Stan and Ollie by this time, and they attempted a direction change they hoped would retain their place as major stars.

Swiss Miss is easily one of Stan and Ollie's worst films of the 30s. Much of the comedy is fairly stale and is often recycled from earlier movies. The boys play mousetrap salesmen who travel to Switzerland figuring that's where all the mouse will be. The boys are hoodwinked by an unscrupulous cheese shop salesman (they're a dodgy lot, those cheese shop salesmen) into selling their entire outfit for a counterfeit note which they then try to spend on a slap-up meal in the local hotel. Needless to say, when the forged note is discovered the boys are put to work in the kitchen.The film's plot revolves around a great maestro cloistering himself away from the world at the Tyrolean hotel in which the boys are paying off their debt in order to write his musical masterpieces – which is unfortunately the cue for a couple of operetta-style musical numbers to pad out the running time. His wife tracks him down however and, when Maestro sends her away, deliberately refuses to pay for her slap-up meal so that she can stay. I've got to say that I wouldn't send her away if she was following me to remote mountain hideaways. Anyway, this part of the story is typically rubbish and best fast-forwarded past.Laurel & Hardy's routines raise only fitful laughs. Stan looks old in this picture, and Ollie, always a big man, is truly obese here. Apart from the boy's final picture together (made in 1951), I can't recall him ever looking so large. Anyway, there's still the occasional moment that raises a laugh – but they're woefully few and far between. In fact the final shot is probably the best of the entire film.

Stan and Ollie turn up in Switzerland, of all places. Stan thinks that they will be able to sell mouse traps to the Swiss because there are more mice there than anywhere else in the world. The owner of a cheese factory offers to buy their stock, but pays with counterfeit money. Thinking they are rich, Stan and Ollie celebrate with a slap-up meal at a local hotel. Then comes the crunch - they are unable to pay the bill.The hotel owner sets them to work as dishwashers. In no time at all, most of the crockery is broken.Also at the hotel is an American composer, trying to write a new musical. His wife shows up and, in an effort to make her husband notice her, pretends to flirt with Ollie...One of the weaker Laurel and Hardy features, this still manages to be a lot of fun. Stan and Ollie have some great scenes together, such as their drilling holes in the cheese factory's wooden floor, playing a tune by popping soap bubbles coming out of an organ, and Ollie serenading the Della Lind character.Switzerland as depicted here is peopled by blonde girls in pigtails, and yodelling men in leather shorts with feathers stuck in their hats, but who cares? 'Bonnie Scotland' was hardly an accurate depiction of that country either.Funniest moment - a close run between Stan's attempts to get a barrel of brandy from a St.Bernard's neck, or his and Ollie moving a piano across a rope bridge, where they encounter a gorilla ( don't ask ).Did I hear someone say dated? Well, Stan and Ollie never needed to swear or fart to get laughs, did they, unlike today's 'comics'.Altogether, a pleasant viewing experience.