Fjols til fjells

They say norwegians are born with skiis on their feet. this film is a nice comic addition to the good old norwegian black and white comedy genre. its about the rich and the poor, the beauty and the beast, spittin images and mistaken identities in a high speed comedy of proportions. a must see for every foreign student trying to learn norwegian language and the norwegian heart and sole(-d)

This movie is one of my all-time favourites. A joy to watch, mainly because of the inimitable Mr. Leif Juster in the lead. Unni Bernhoft is rather unconvincing and utterly charming as the young girl, or should we say boy, and Frank Robert does a great job (or rather two great jobs) as the ornithologist and the blasé actor. Add great one-liners, beautiful Norwegian mountain landscapes, great atmosphere, an utterly improbable story and amateurish editing, and voilà: A classic.

"Fools In The Mountains" (1957) is an excruciating example of what Roger Ebert famously called The Idiot Plot - the kind of plot that would be resolved in 5 seconds if everyone involved was not a clinical idiot. The entire film is built on the shaky foundation of dumb misunderstandings. It is a major disappointment coming form Norway's first female director, Edith Carlmar, after her two very good noirs, "Death Is A Caress" (1949) and "Young Woman Missing" (1953). Maybe comedy just wasn't her forte. On the positive side, Unni Bernhoft is cute, and there is some pleasing snowy scenery. *1/2 out of 4.

I don't know if John Cleese have seen this film, but I really wouldn't wonder if this could have been the inspiration to the most classic of all British Comedy's, Fawlty Towers,.

Fjols til Fjells (translates into: Fools in the mountains) is a beloved Norwegian comedy from 1957, which are moving around the fabulous long and thin comedian Leif Juster, which had a special way with words and facial expressions. This film us a farce with no deeper meaning, but just plain family fun.

We're at a small mountain hotel, where Poppe is portier in a fatal way, just like Basil Fawlty did 15 years later at Fawlty a Towers. Just as long and thin, and just as stupid and easily frustrated, but over all well meaning. He assumes just like Basil did some years later, and both have a huge following in Norway.

The plot is that portier Poppe is moving towards a nervous breakdown, during a stressful winter holiday time. He has some issues with the new unexperienced but well meaning bellboy, and a guest is popping up one minute, just to disappear the next, confusing Popper in a major WAP. He of course mistakes two resembling lookalikes, which are very different guests, which again both thinks Poppe is raving mad, while Poppe thinks the guy is lying or delusional.

There's so much in common with these two figures and their hotels, it's difficult to see that this is a coincidence. The film is one of the biggest cinema successes in Norway, and is every year around Christmas shown on the TV-channels.

Worth to mention is that you find Liv Ullmann in her first film role, in a minor role as guest, and a lot of others well known Norwegian actors. A joy to watch though utterly stupid, filmed in an interesting place with a large gallery of guests.

Leif Juster is the manager of a ski resort. He has just ordered a snowmobile for the guests. The extravagance rouses the ire of the owner of the chain. He sends his daughter, Unni Bernhoft, to investigates, which she does by putting on a bellhop's uniform, which seems to fool everyone but the audience. Meanwhile, Frank Robert has checked in as two characters: one is a repressed ornithologist who carries a stuffed owl around; the other is a free-living star of stage and screen. Naturally, everyone thinks they are the same character, which causes the usual comic misunderstanding.

Juster is a fine comic, with his big nose and gangly build, but his demeanor and temper proclaim him a stage comic, and some good camera work and editing don't disguise the work this is a stage farce. It's also paced a trifle slow and goes on a bit too long for someone used to the lightning farce sequences of Friz Freleng and Michael Frayn.