Swiss Miss (1938)

Stanley and Oliver are mousetrap salesmen hoping to strike it rich in Switzerland, but get swindled out of all their money by a cheesemaker. While working off their hotel debt, Oliver falls... See full summary »

Director:

John G. Blystone

Writers:

Jean Negulesco (original story), Charley Rogers (original story),

Stars:

Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Grete Natzler

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Stan Laurel	...	Stan
Oliver Hardy	...	Oliver
Grete Natzler	...	Anna Albert (as Della Lind)
Walter Woolf King	...	Victor Albert
Eric Blore	...	Edward
Adia Kuznetzoff	...	Chef
Charles Judels	...	Cheese Factory Proprietor
Ludovico Tomarchio	...	Luigi
Franz Hug	...	Flag Thrower
Jean De Briac	...	Enrico
George Sorel	...	Joseph
Charles Gemora	...	Gorilla (as Charles Gamore)

Storyline

Stanley and Oliver are mousetrap salesmen hoping to strike it rich in Switzerland, but get swindled out of all their money by a cheesemaker. While working off their hotel debt, Oliver falls in love with a chambermaid, Anna, who in reality is a famous opera singer spying on her composer husband, Victor, while he works on his new opera. The boys are assigned to move Victor's piano to a secluded tree house, but become trapped on a rickety rope bridge high above an Alpine gorge when they're met halfway across by a gorilla.

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Plot Keywords:

piano | hotel | gorilla | monkey | saint bernard dog | 

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Taglines:

Yelps in the Alps !

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Genres:

Comedy

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

20 May 1938 (USA)

Also Known As:

Les montagnards sont là

Filming Locations:

Big Bear Lake, Big Bear Valley, San Bernardino National Forest, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Hal Roach Studios, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

73 min 65 min (edited)

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The gorilla is played by actor 'Charles Gamora', who also played Ethel the chimp in an earlier L&H short The Chimp.

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Quotes

Oliver: I thought you told me I had her in the palm of my hand.
Stan: Well you did, but you didn't play your cards right.

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Connections

Featured in Laurel & Hardy: Their Lives and Magic (2011)

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Soundtracks

"The Cricket Song"
(1938) (uncredited)
Music by Phil Charig
Lyrics by Arthur Quenzer
Performed by Walter Woolf King, Eric Blore, Grete Natzler and the hotel staff

User Reviews

I Can't Get Over the Crickets

Swiss Miss would have been far far better had Hal Roach dispensed altogether with the operetta format and just allowed Stan and Ollie to do their thing. Away from them the film sinks like the Titanic.

Walter Woolf King and Greta Natzler are the husband and wife romantic leads and there's a strain in their relationship. He's a composer, she's a singer and poor Walter is jealous of the attention she gets and no one pays attention to what he writes. He goes off to the Alps to compose his masterpiece. She follows him there.

The banter and the songs are typical of a MacDonald/Eddy film, but Nelson and Jeanette never had to sing stuff like I Can't Get Over the Alps and the Cricket Song. They wouldn't have had careers if they did.

Interestingly enough the bit with King composing the Cricket Song after hearing their chirping is similar to Jerome Kern hearing a bird call and getting I've Told Every Little Star out of it. Of course it wasn't Jerome Kern who gave us the Cricket Song.

Walter Woolf King who's best known as the egotistical Lespari from A Night at the Opera just doesn't come across as a good guy. Maybe with better material Allan Jones could have done this part.

But with Stan and Ollie the film is enjoyable. They've got some classic bits, Laurel trying to steal some brandy from a St. Bernard, drilling holes in a shopkeeper's floor and hitting a gas line for their trouble and best of all the insane idea of moving an upright piano across a rope bridge and encountering an escaped gorilla.

Mute the sound whenever Stan and Ollie aren't around and you might enjoy Swiss Miss.