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SWISS MISS often shows the problems Laurel and Hardy had at the Hal Roach studios when they stopped making their short films and were forced into making only features.It is rather sad that they became victims of their own success;their series of silent and sound shorts are generally acknowledged to be consistently the most famous,loved,best-made and revived series in movie history,even above such comic greats as Chaplin,Keaton and Lloyd.The symptoms of this unparallelled triumph was that their boss Hal Roach was increasingly forced to put the boys into features as well as short comedies,in the name of economy.As a result,producer Roach was forced to exert more control over such more expensive productions,which led to increasing tensions in his professional(and personal)relationship with Stan Laurel. Laurel,of course,was the main creative force behind the camera of the L & H partnership,and Roach rarely interfered artistically when producing their short films.Sadly in the features,Roach took it upon himself to supervise the content on a larger basis,much to Stan's chagrin.While it is true that Roach still left Laurel a substantial amount of creative freedom in most of these features,the two still quarrelled about scripts on occasion.BABES IN TOYLAND,made four years previous,was one example.Roach apparently wrote a script which Laurel rejected;Stan's eventual story was filmed,much to his boss's anger,and relations between the two were said to be somewhat damaged thereafter.

It is remarkable in many ways that Roach didn't sack Laurel on the spot there and then after such apparent insurgence.We can be thankful than Stan and Babe Hardy remained at Roach for another six years,where they still produced some genuine classics(WAY OUT WEST the best regarded),but it was always obvious L & H were more comfortable in the shorter film mould.They still made some classic features(SONS OF THE DESERT and the above;with BLOCKHEADS and OUR RELATIONS not too far behind),but SWISS MISS is decidedly average compared to most of their Roach features.Their best features were those in which the story was just about Laurel and Hardy and their adventures,not needing frequent straight,humourless romantic sub-plots or pauses for musical numbers.It is infested with many of the above faults between the L & H routines in this film,which drag it down considerably and lead to much tedium.SWISS MISS often doesn't have the proper feel of a Roach L & H vehicle either,with an untypical and rather uninspired supporting cast,consisting of mainland European performers as befits the foreign setting.It is nice to see the inimitable British comedy actor Eric Blore present,but he hardly gets a chance to interact with the boys,and his role unfortunately consists of unfunny platitudes.

The only really familiar face on view is Anita Garvin,returning to the L & H world after a gap of seven years.Her scene with the boys is quite amusing,but is all too brief.The best remembered sequences,involving a St.Bernard dog with a tot of brandy,and delivering a piano over a swing-bridge,only to be confronted by a gorilla,are enough to save the film from total mediocrity,but for various reasons,Roach involved himself in the production rather too much for Stan's comfort,editing key scenes out,like a bomb put into the piano(which would have added more power to the piano delivery scene)and a musical number featuring cheese shop owner Charles Judels,in which only a few lyrics remain intact in the released version.

As it is,SWISS MISS also befits from an elaborate production for Roach standards,and although not necessarily as poor as their post-1940 features,it is still heavily flawed and one of their weaker features at Roach.

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.

You know you are in trouble when Laurel and Hardy don't make their appearance in this film until the six minute mark!! Despite their being the funniest comedy team in the world, the studio insisted on sticking too many diversions into the film--including lots of Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy-style songs and portions where the dialog is done in rhyme! With any comedy team, usually the more songs the more bland the film and this film is certainly no exception. Only a maniac would have thought of doing this or adding rhymes in a film like this!

And, speaking of maniacs, whose idea was it to include a guy in a gorilla suit?! The idea of a "wild gorilla" running about the Swiss mountains just doesn't make any sense--even in a comedy.

Most of the movies in the latter portion of Laurel and Hardy's careers were rather poor and stale. Of the movies made from the late 1930s on, perhaps the best are Blockheads and A Chump at Oxford. While not as bad as the 20th Century Fox Laurel and Hardy pictures or Atoll K, this movie just isn't up the quality of their earlier pictures. Simply put, the duo are looking rather old and ragged and the jokes that worked well the first few times look a bit stale here.

My advice, see something else or else you might not appreciate this comedy team. This is far from their "A game".

Laurel and Hardy are travelling through Switzerland selling mouse traps (unsuccessfully it has to be said). When a man offers to buy the business from them, Hardy accepts and takes the foreign money. After the duo eat a large meal at a posh hotel they find that the note is worthless in Switzerland and are forced to work in the hotel to pay off their debt (and pay for every plate they break). While they are there they also get involved in a marital spat between a composer and his famous singer wife.

As someone who has seen more of their shorts than I have of their features, I was worried that a longer running time (70 minutes) would be too much for the duo to sustain. Having seen other features I knew they COULD do it if they were given the chance – sadly here they weren't given that chance. Instead they are given surprisingly little screen time and not allowed to work their magic for very long, with an off-putting amount of time devoted to the martial problems I have previously alluded to.

I don't know who made the decision that Laurel and Hardy were unable to carry a feature and required a structure to base their routines around - they should always be within the structure! The mistake shines through though in several funny scenes where Laurel and Hardy are given the good material – the gorilla (in Switzerland!) on a bridge may not make much sense but it is funny, although my highlight was Laurel trying to coax brandy out of a St Bernard's! Sadly the chances for them to produce are limited by the tradition (and overdone) song and dance numbers (where we also have the usual `Laurel does funny voice' stuff) and the romantic subplot.

Hardy is good as is Laurel, but Laurel's character is much stronger than in the shorts – he still bears the brunt of stuff but he is more forceful than before, not to mention a lot chubbier! I personally didn't take to this as well as I'd hoped I would – for whatever reason the changes were made, they off balanced the relationship that I love between the two. The support cast are roundly OK but it is hard to get interested in them simply because, while they are on, Laurel and Hardy aren't.

Overall this is a very weak feature from the usually reliable pair. The majority of the running time is taken up by the songs and the romantic subplot, with the duo only given a few chances to shine (which, happily, they take). In the 70 minutes it took to watch this I could have watched three of their shorts – each of which would have been better than this!

This film is poorly regarded in the L & H canon because it has an execrable plot and a dire musical score. The most mind-numbing number is a song in praise of Switzerland called 'I can't get over the Alps'. Fans of the dystopian duo will forgive all this, however, because it contains two of their most inspired scenes. In the first, Stan tricks a St Bernard dog into dispensing its keg of brandy by lying on the ground and covering himself with a snowstorm of feathers. In the second, Stan and Ollie attempt to push a piano across a rope bridge and are met by a gorilla going in the opposite direction. Gorilla's in Switzerland, who cares?