SWISS MISS (1938)

Swiss Miss, is a 1938 comedy film directed by John G. Blystone, produced by Hal Roach and starring Laurel and Hardy. It also features Walter Woolf King, Della Lind and Eric Blore in support.

PLOT 
Stan and Ollie are mousetrap salesmen hoping for better business in Switzerland, with Stan's theory that because there is more cheese in Switzerland, there should be more mice. While visiting one village, they find the villagers unresponsive. On top of that, a cheese shop owner cons them out of their wares with a bogus banknote, and they are forced to work as dishwashers in a nearby hotel after ordering a slap-up meal they are unable to pay for. They also had antagonized and insulted the chef, who tells them that for each dish they break they work another day. A Viennese composer present at the hotel is disrupted by the presence of his wife - an opera singer who upstages him constantly; Ollie subsequently falls in love with her. Various mis-adventures ensue (including Laurel getting drunk on a St.Bernard's keg of whiskey, a confrontation with a local street musician's gorilla on a perilously-perched rope bridge, while carting a small piano over it to an isolated cliff house so the composer can work there in peace). This struggle ends with the bridge breaking and the portable piano & gorilla plunging into the abyss. The smashing of the piano obliges the composer to use the large organ near the staircase, until a replacement is delivered. Assigned to wash the stairs, the boys inadvertently dump soap water into the organ pipes and this causes the music to be accompanied by bubbles as the composer works on his latest piece. The boys have some fun with the 'musical' bubbles. Also in love with the opera singer, the chef sees Hardy as a rival, especially after he was awakened by Stanley playing the tuba outside his window (the boys thinking that it was the singer's window) and Hardy singing to serenade her. The angry chef douses Hardy with a pitcher of water and then threatens the boys. The next day, the rivalry comes to a head with a wild chase. The boys overpower the hotel's burly chef and visit the singer, only to discover that she is indeed married to the composer. As they leave the hotel & village, they are then confronted by the vengeful gorilla (on crutches) who hurls his crutch at them before they depart, running. 

• Producer Hal Roach is said to have indulged in artistic interference during the film's editing, much to Stan Laurel's exasperation. Always a large creative force behind the camera, Laurel objected to Roach's removing scenes, including the addition of a bomb in the composer's piano, where the tapping of a particular key would set it off. A drunken Stan is seen touching the piano keys during the piano delivery sequence involving the gorilla; Laurel initially thought the inclusion of the bomb would give the scene more power. The bomb in the piano gag would later be used in a Bugs Bunny/Yosemite Sam cartoon Ballot Box Bunny. A musical number in the cheese shop was also removed; only a few lyrics remain in the film. Charles Gemora, who plays the gorilla, had six years earlier appeared in the title role of a Laurel and Hardy theatrical short called The Chimp.

Stan Laurel singing with Marvin Hatley & Charles Judels while Babe Hardy looks on.

Hal Roach directing a scene

Actor Alan Mowbray, on a break from filming on a nearby set, visits Stan

Actor Alan Mowbray, on a break from filming on a nearby set, visits Stan

Stan photographing Dinah the mule.

Hal Roach's daughter, Margaret, who was an extra - with the St. Bernard

Stan and Marvin Hatley at piano; Walter Woolf King at left; Hal Roach, Jr., at far right

The boys on set with the make-up girl

ONE GOOD TURN (1931)

One Good Turn is a 1931 short comedy film starring Laurel and Hardy.

 PLOT
Stan and Ollie are victims of the Great depression and are begging for food. A friendly old lady provides them with some sandwiches. Enjoying their meal they hear that the old lady will be thrown out of her house because she is robbed and cannot pay her mortgage. They don't know that the old lady is rehearsing a play. Stan and Ollie decide to repay the old lady by selling their car. During the auction a drunken man (Billy Gilbert) puts a wallet in Stan's pocket. Ollie accuses Stan of having robbed the old lady but when they return to the old lady's place they hear the truth. Stan takes revenge on Ollie in a violent way.

• Stan Laurel's daughter Lois was fearful of Oliver Hardy (known to her as "Uncle Babe") when her father was hit by Hardy in many Laurel and Hardy films. So, Laurel wrote a scene in which Hardy was hit by him.

ANY OLD PORT (1932)

Any Old Port! is a 1932 short film starring Laurel and Hardy, directed by James W.Horne and produced by Hal Roach.

PLOT
Sailors Laurel and Hardy disembark and book in a sleazy hotel. The owner Mugsie Long intends to marry a young girl against her wishes, but Stan and Ollie come to her rescue. After fleeing the hotel, the boys find out they've left their money in their room, but an old pal of Ollie's offers $50 if Ollie will fight in a boxing ring that night. Ollie agrees but predictably makes Stan the fighter and himself the manager. The catch is Stan's opponent is Mugsie himself. Knowing how tough Mugsie is, Ollie makes a seemingly wise bet with a drunk on Mugsie to win. The drunk accepts the bet, making himself seem to Ollie a sucker. Seeing Stan as his opponent, Mugsie loads his glove with metal before the fight begins. However, during the course of the fight, Mugsie and Stan accidentally switch gloves, causing Mugsie to comically run away from Stan knowing he has the loaded glove. Stan, who doesn't realize the glove is loaded despite it weighing his arm down, manages to knock out Mugsie when he tries to pull the loaded glove off his hand and winds up knocking himself out. Ollie winces in defeat while the drunk chuckles in triumph; turns out he wasn't so much a sucker after all. Mugsie's second calls a policeman and tells him Stan had been fighting with a loaded glove. Ollie is forced to give the drunk the money they received for entering the fight, to Stan's consternation, until Ollie explains, "I bet on you to lose and you double-crossed me!" Stan, enraged at his own buddy and manager betting against him, starts to knock Ollie out cold...but as he draws his fist back, he accidentally knocks out the policeman investigating about the loaded glove, ironically still on his hand! Stan and Ollie flee the stadium in terror.

ANGORA LOVE (1929)

Angora Love is the final silent film made by Laurel and Hardy, released on December 14, 1929. 

PLOT
A stray goat attaches itself to Laurel and Hardy and follows them everywhere. They are forced to bring it into their apartment and are not particularly effective at hiding it from their outraged landlord. 

 Several of the gags in Angora Love were reworked in Laughing Gravy and The Chimp.

ON SET WITH HAL ROACH

PERFECT DAY (1929)

Two families embark on a pleasant Sunday picnic in their Ford Model T, but manage to run into a variety of issues with the temperamental automobile. Each incident requires repeated exits and reboardings by Laurel, Hardy, their wives and grouchy, gout-ridden Uncle Edgar. A brick-throwing argument with a neighbor threatens to escalate into an all-out turf war until the local parson gets involved. The families manage to finally get their day underway, only to plunge neck-deep into a seemingly shallow, water-filled pothole.

The boys on set with Stan's daughter Lois.

BRATS (1930)

Laurel and Hardy are spending a night in with the kids. The fathers are playing checkers and snooker, but are constantly distracted by their own incompetence and by their children, constantly bullying each other and trying to stay up late. The film begins with Stan and Ollie playing a game of checkers, and Stan Jr. and Ollie Jr. playing a game of hide and seek. They smash a vase and are sent to bed. Ollie Jr. goes into the bath and chases Stan Jr. out (leaving the taps on), but slips on the soap causing part of the ceiling to crash onto the pool table. Stan and Ollie are furious and rush upstairs. When Oliver opens the door the water from the bathroom gushes out.

Stan Laurel, Elmer Raguse, James Parrott, Oliver Hardy and 2 unknowns on the "Brats" set.

A couple of rare photo of Thelma Todd on the 'bathroom' set of Brats

A CHUMP AT OXFORD (1940)

With Stan in drag, the boys get jobs as a butler and maid for a dinner party at the Vandevere's. After that ends in disaster, they're reduced to sweeping streets, and accidentally capture a bank robber. The grateful bank president sends them to Oxford for a proper education. There they become victims of student pranks, getting lost in the Maze and taking over the Dean's quarters as their own. But then a knock on the head gets Stan to believing he's the famed Lord Paddington, scholar and athlete extraordinaire. Suddenly erudite and supercilious, he retains Oliver as his valet, "Fatty."