Like Laurel & Hardy's previous feature, Bonnie Scotland, this movie of theirs has two storylines that hardly seem to go together. It begins with a composer wanting to be alone to write his music. Later scenes has his singer wife basically not letting him write in peace. That plot is mostly for the birds though the songs are tolerable enough. Stan & Ollie are trying to sell mousetraps at the Swiss Alps with initially no success. They eventually meet this female singer thinking she's a chambermaid with Ollie instantly smitten. I'll just now say that the boys have a funny sequence when they think they're successful in selling their wares after drilling holes in the floor of a cheese factory followed by another funny sequence of Stan trying to get a drink from the barrel of a St. Bernard. The getting-a-piano-through-a-loosely-swinging-bridge-with-a-gorilla-also-waiting-on-it wasn't as funny but still amusing enough. Also pretty funny was the return of Anita Garvin, after several years off of L & H films, as the wife of a man she argues with about whether or not to look at the boys' mousetrap. After all that, Stan & Ollie just bring mere chuckles or just smiles though they're never less than entertaining which can't be said for the other plot I mentioned. Still, Swiss Miss is worth a look for any L & H fan. P. S. Reportedly, both Hal Roach's wife Margaret and Stan's daughter Lois appear as extras but I haven't been able to locate them. Oh, and the ending of this film is very similar to the last movie I watched and reviewed: In Society starring that other comedy team I've been commenting on. So as we leave Stan & Ollie at the Swiss mountains, I'll next review Abbott & Costello at snow-capped ones in Hit the Ice.
Review of Swiss Miss
