Swiss Miss – a bowl of laughter with a side of chaos

So, Swiss Miss! I threw it on a rainy Thursday, you know, one of those days in March when Stockholm is more slask (slush) than actual ice. Nothing like Laurel and Hardy to remind you that silliness is a global language, whether you’re freezing in Skåne or eating sausage in Zürich.

Starring the legendary duo Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, with supervising eyes by director John G. Blystone (the guy was everywhere back then), the film is a messy smorgasbord of gags. There’s Margaret Dumont too, who always nails the grand dame stuff. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was running the show – you can kinda tell, huge sets and old-school orchestra numbers. And cheese. So much cheese.

The banana-peel comedy still sort of works, even now. Hardy keeps his stuffy, sweaty charm, and Laurel brings that loopy, wide-eyed innocence. Their slapstick feels more cozy than clever, comforting like boiled korv at 2AM. But, okay, some bits go on too long. The whole “moving a piano over the Alps with a gorilla on your heels” – I mean, come on. I love farce, but after ten minutes I started looking at my phone. Maybe I have zero attention span left?

Watching it I couldn’t help thinking of that time in Åre when my mate Stefan and I carted a too-heavy sofa up an icy hill. Stefan slipped, sofa tumbled, people laughed. Felt exactly like one of their stunts, except nobody broke a leg. Those classic gags are universal – clumsy dudes, heavy stuff, pranks, it’s stuff we’ve all lived, bara så.

Still, some of the jokes are, you know, a bit dusty. Not everything holds up, but it’s a nice, sweet break from gloomy thrillers and oh-so-slick modern comedies. I’d say: grab some hot chocolate, a good pal, and let it roll. Feels almost as cozy as a night at min mormors stuga, honestly.

watch the full movie on Mavshack Movies on YouTube

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