Swiss Miss (film)

Infobox Film
name = Swiss Miss


caption = "Swiss Miss DVD cover"
director = John G. Blystone
producer = Hal Roach
writer =
starring = Stan Laurel
Oliver Hardy
Walter Woolf King
Della Lind
Eric Blore
Adia Kuznetzoff
Charles Judels
Ludovico Tomarchio
Franz Hug
Jean de Briac
George Sorel
Charles Gemora
music =
cinematography =
editing =
distributor = Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
released = 1938
runtime =
language = English
budget =
country = USA
preceded_by = "Way Out West"
followed_by = "Block-Heads"
imdb_id = 0030824

"Swiss Miss", is a 1938 comedy film directed by John G. Blystone, produced by Hal Roach and starring Laurel and Hardy. It also features Walter Woolf King, Della Lind and Eric Blore in support.

Plot

Stan and Ollie are mousetrap salesmen hoping for better business in Switzerland, with Stan's theory that because there's more cheese in Switzerland, there should be more mice. While visiting one village, a cheese shop owner cons them out of their wares with a bogus banknote, and they are forced to work as dishwashers in a nearby hotel after ordering a slap-up meal they are unable to pay for. A Viennese composer present at the hotel is disrupted by the presence of his wife - an opera singer who upstages him constantly; Ollie subsequently falls in love with her. After various adventures (including a confrontation with a gorilla on a perilously-perched swing-bridge), the boys overpower the hotel's burly chef and leave the hotel and village, but only to be confronted by the vengeful gorilla (in crutches) before they depart.

Production

Producer Hal Roach is said to have indulged in artistic interference during the film's editing, much to Stan Laurel's chagrin. Always a large creative force behind the camera, Laurel objected to Roach removing scenes, including the addition of a bomb in the composer's piano, where the tapping of a particular key would set it off. A drunken Stan is seen touching the piano keys during the piano delivery sequence involving the gorilla; Laurel initially thought the inclusion of the bomb would give the scene more power. A musical number in the cheese shop was also removed; only a few lyrics remain in the film.

Charles Gemora who plays the gorilla, had six years earlier appeared in the title role of a Laurel and Hardy theatrical short called "The Chimp".

Reception

The film has always had a mixed critical reaction, both with Laurel and Hardy buffs and non-buffs. Some comic sequences, involving Stan cajoling a tot of brandy from a St.Bernard dog, and the aforementioned swing-bridge scene, have garnered much praise, though the romantic sub-plot with the composer and his wife has often received the opposite.

In Popular Culture

Oliver Hardy at one point serenades Anna (the composer's wife) with the song "Let Me Call You Sweetheart", accompanied only by Laurel's tuba; the version from the film is currently being used by the mobile phone company Orange in an advertisement being shown on UK TV.

Cast

*Stan Laurel as Himself
*Oliver Hardy as Himself
*Walter Woolf King as Victor Albert
*Della Lind as Anna Albert
*Eric Blore as Edward
*Adia Kuznetzoff as Chef
*Charles Judels as the Cheese Shop Owner
*Ludovico Tomarchio as Luigi
*Franz Hug as a Flag Thrower
*Jean de Briac as Enrico
*George Sorel as Joseph
*Charles Gemora as a Gorilla

See also

*Laurel and Hardy films
*Laurel and Hardy

External links

*imdb title|id=0030824|title=Swiss Miss