Well, looking back, SWISS MISS is a little better than I remember, but that still doesn’t change the fact that I personally consider this their worst Roach feature.
Starting with the positives, I agree about the scene with Stan and the dog. The pacing is excellent and it definitely belongs up there with the great solo Stan scenes. I’ll also admit that the randomness of the gorilla during the bridge scene is also pretty funny. There are other good, but more minor scenes, such the part with Anita Garvin, the scene with Stan and Ollie and the fire coming out of the holes, and the scene where Stan plays the tuba and tortures the chef.
Visually, yes, this feature does look great, but I just wish that it were applied to a better story. The major problem that I have with this film is the romantic interests. Look, I get that the guy in BONNIE SCOTLAND was whiny and, sure, it could sometimes get annoying, but I’d rather take him over the egotistical brats that take up the dramatic portions of this film. I mean, come on, the guy literally makes an entire hotel recreate a specific atmosphere just so he can prove he’s a good composer, and the woman just uses Ollie like he was nothing. I suppose if they somehow made it up to him in the end, I wouldn’t mind so much. It would have at least been nice for them to pay his bill so he didn’t have to stay at the hotel anymore. But, no, instead they escape by way of a lame climax involving Laurel and Hardy running from and trapping the chef.
Even the comedy doesn’t always work. The bridge scene drags quite a bit. There was supposed to be a bomb in the piano during this scene to give it more tension (kind of like the bomb-in-the-piano gag used in several Warner Bros. cartoons), but Roach cut it. This leads to a way too long scene in which Stan awkwardly hits keys for no reason at all. I’m also not fond of the whole bubbles scene either. Sorry, but it just felt slow and unfunny to me.
It’s more coherent than BONNIE SCOTLAND and I did find myself enjoying some more of the minor comedy bits than I remember, but the terribly handled story combined with some rather boring, longer comedy scenes makes me still prefer BONNIE SCOTLAND over this. Again, there are some good moments, but it requires sitting through a lot of tediousness.
6 out of 10