April 24, 2014
Swiss Miss – US, 1938
Stan Laurel and
Oliver Hardy’s 1938 film Swiss Miss
is a film that never quite finds its footing. It features two competing stories
that never blend together the way they should and that often seem at cross
purposes. The first story involves a famous composer named Victor Albert (Broadway
star Walter Woolf King) who rents out a Swiss hotel so that he can compose what
he hopes will be his masterpiece, and for kicks, he orders that the entire
hotel staff, as well as his manager, dress in stereotypical Swiss garb and
serenade him as he triumphantly arrives in a horse-drawn carriage. (The origin
of the orchestral accompaniment remains a mystery.) This storyline immediately
presents a problem. There are no guests for him to interact with, and if he is
true to his word, his activities will consist of nothing more than sitting by a
piano and composing. Where’s the humor in that? Enter Stan Laurel and Oliver
Hardy, two mouse trap salesmen attempting to peddle their wares in a land that –
according to Laurel, at least – should be teeming with rats – on account of the
all the cheese, of course.
One expects Laurel
and Hardy to find their way to the hotel where the good composer is staying and
proceed to make it rather impossible for him to compose, yet the film avoids
this route. Mistake #1. Instead, the film puts Laurel and Hardy at the mercy of
the hotel’s chef, who develops quite a personal vendetta against them. Through
a series of mishaps, the two end up having to work off a rather large
restaurant bill, and every time they break a dish, their sentence is extended.
This storyline offers the film its second chance at constructing a more
standard narrative, one that would have potential for an array of restaurant
hijinks and pratfalls. Again, the film opts not to match the audience’s
expectations, although to be fair, it does spend a bit more time developing
this storyline than it does on the composer.
So essentially the
film presents us with dueling stories: the composer upstairs trying to write
and Laurel and Hardy downstairs trying not to break anymore plates. All that is
needed now is something or someone to be the glue that pulls these two stories
together. Enter Victor’s German wife Anna (Grete Natzler). Anna is a singer
whose success and the press’s generous coverage of it has diminished her
husband to being a mere footnote in newspaper reports of their performances. He
wants her to return home and let him work; she wants to stay and what? Bother
him? And in the tug-of-war that follows, she decides – for no reason at all –
to make him jealous by asking every male in the establishment if he likes her.
It is this bizarre scheme that finally merges the tale of the frustrated composer
and the two unfortunate traveling salesmen.
The film is occasionally
amusing, and several gags elicited chuckles out of me, although there were no
really hearty laughs. There’s a nice bit involving Laurel’s attempts to trick a
Red Cross St. Bernard out of his brandy and a creative bit involving Stan and
Oliver trying to transport a piano to a tree house that is on top of a
mountain. This involves crossing a rather rickety extension bridge that few
people in their right minds would attempt to use. There are also a few pre-code
moments that will make attentive viewers marvel at how such dialogue got past
the censors. Also enjoyable is the
evolving nature of Stan Laurel’s character. In this film, he is the leader of
the group, and. as expected. he is always leading the two of them in exactly
the wrong direction.
In the end, Swiss Miss is not a terrible film. It
just never completely knows what to do with its competing stories and its vast
array of characters. What it finally elects to do feels more like a cop-out
than a masterstroke. What is apparent throughout the film is the newfound pull
that Stan Laurel had regarding the Laurel & Hardy brand. He had recently
signed a new deal with MGM, and it was in the contract that their films would
be shot on more expensive sets and exotic locations. Mr. Laurel seems to have been
eager for Laurel & Hardy films not to remain static, and so the standard L
& H formula is tinkered with here. And in all honesty, it is nice to see
these characters continuing to evolve at this late stage in their careers
instead of resting – forgive the pun – on their laurels. If only the finished product
had been a little better. (on DVD)
2 and a half stars
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