Truly Dreadful Film

Good concept, poorly executed.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Go in cold, and you're likely to emerge with your blood boiling. This has to be seen to be believed.

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.

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy are the most famous comedy duo in history, and deservedly so, so I am happy to see any of their films. At the Alpen Hotel, Switzerland, they expect operatic composer Victor Albert (Walter Woolf King), who has rented all rooms to compose his Tyrolean masterpiece, he arrives yodelling. Meanwhile Stan and Ollie are trying unsuccessfully to sell mouse traps, and to get rid of his worthless Bovanian francs, the Cheese Factory Proprietor (Charles Judels) buys the whole business. So the boys celebrate with a big dinner at the hotel restaurant, and when they realise they have been swindled, they must work in the kitchen until they have paid the debt, and extra days are added for breaking dishes. Soon to arrive at the Hotel is Victor's wife, successful singer Anna Hoeful Albert (Della Lind) who gets all the credit, Victor only gets a P.S., so he obviously wants her to go back to Vienna. Then we see Stan trying to trick a St. Bernard dog to give him his brandy keg, and when Ollie returns to get him to help carry Victor's piano to the tree house, his drunkenness doesn't help. So the boys try to push the piano (a reprise of The Music Box) along a rope bridge, but it is not just Stan's drunken state causing trouble, but a loose gorilla coming along, but falls when the bridge snaps. Anna is trying to get Victor jealous and noticing her by dressing as a peasant girl, and getting both Ollie and the hotel Chef (Adia Kuznetzoff) to fall in love with her. Victor is trying to concentrate more on his music, and with piano gone at one point he uses an organ filled with soapy water, with bubbles coming out and popping some of the notes. At night, the boys invite her to join them at the Alpenfest for merry making, she agrees, and even after she has left the window, they remember to serenade her, with Ollie singing "Let Me Call You Sweetheart" (which I recognised from an Orange mobile phone advert) accompanied only by Stan's sousaphone, and they get soaked by the Chef. The next day, everyone is singing "I Can't Get Over the Alps", and the boys arrive by horse and caravan wearing huge moustaches, and introducing Anna as 'Romany Rose', Victor obviously recognises her. In the end, Victor finds his love for Anna once again, the boys see them reunited too, and as they leave the hotel, they are forced to run away from the gorilla, returned in bandages and crutches, but manages to hit them both on the head with a crutch, running down the road. Also starring Eric Blore as Edward, Adviser to Victor Albert and Franz Hug as Flag thrower. Filled with wonderful slapstick and all classic comedy you could want from a black and white film, it is an enjoyable film. Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were number 7 on The Comedians' Comedian. Good!

I've watched movies for over 50 years now, and I like to muse over the "why" of movies. This particular one, it seems, was made to give audiences yet another opportunity to see these two funny men in funny situations. Much like the Martin and Lewis movies that came a bit later. The story and other characters are not important.Stan Laurel plays Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy plays Oliver Hardy. This adventure has them going to the Swiss Alps to sell mousetraps. I suppose it has to do with the legend that mice like cheese, and there is lots of Swiss cheese there.The movie has many of the usual clichés of the time. We see the inside of a shop and there is a large wedge of Swiss cheese prominently displayed. There is the St Bernard dog with the small cask of brandy hanging from its neck. More puzzling is the gorilla.This movie contains the famous scene of Laurel and Hardy hired to move a piano. It involves crossing a very droopy and seemingly unsafe suspension bridge across a mountain ravine thousands of feet deep. The gorilla shows up to make the crossing more perilous.Nothing but a fluff of a story, but a good reminder of what 1930s cinema was all about. The run time is listed as 72 minutes but on the TCM channel today it was closer to 64 minutes.

Stan and Ollie turn up in Switzerland, of all places. Stan thinks that they will be able to sell mouse traps to the Swiss because there are more mice there than anywhere else in the world. The owner of a cheese factory offers to buy their stock, but pays with counterfeit money. Thinking they are rich, Stan and Ollie celebrate with a slap-up meal at a local hotel. Then comes the crunch - they are unable to pay the bill.The hotel owner sets them to work as dishwashers. In no time at all, most of the crockery is broken.Also at the hotel is an American composer, trying to write a new musical. His wife shows up and, in an effort to make her husband notice her, pretends to flirt with Ollie...One of the weaker Laurel and Hardy features, this still manages to be a lot of fun. Stan and Ollie have some great scenes together, such as their drilling holes in the cheese factory's wooden floor, playing a tune by popping soap bubbles coming out of an organ, and Ollie serenading the Della Lind character.Switzerland as depicted here is peopled by blonde girls in pigtails, and yodelling men in leather shorts with feathers stuck in their hats, but who cares? 'Bonnie Scotland' was hardly an accurate depiction of that country either.Funniest moment - a close run between Stan's attempts to get a barrel of brandy from a St.Bernard's neck, or his and Ollie moving a piano across a rope bridge, where they encounter a gorilla ( don't ask ).Did I hear someone say dated? Well, Stan and Ollie never needed to swear or fart to get laughs, did they, unlike today's 'comics'.Altogether, a pleasant viewing experience.