Swiss Miss Reviews

One of Laurel and Hardy's less effective outings, in which they play mousetrap salesmen in Switzerland, the most logical place to display their wares, they feel, because it's a country of cheese. They wind up as waiters at a Swiss chalet where their usual ineptitude causes havoc. The kitchen scenes afford ample opportunity to display the duo's comic ability, but none of the shenanigans seem very funny. This failure isn't the fault of Laurel and Hardy, but of a poorly conceived script and an even worse manner of staging the story. All the action takes place during a music festival, so there are plenty of people going about singing, including King and Lind as a couple, with King trying to ditch his wife. The wonderfully bizarre nature of the action is overshadowed by the fact that Laurel reportedly was ill during the production, and indeed he looks drawn and tired much of the time. Roach, who was born in Switzerland, allegedly changed certain gags and killed one routine completely, no doubt helping to bury the whole thing in a Swiss snowslide of audience antipathy.