During their golden years with Hal Roach, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy starred in a number of comic operettas, and while this one has several richly funny scenes, it's one of the boys lesser features. The reason why Swiss Miss fails, while other similar pictures succeed, has a lot to do with the plot -- Laurel and Hardy just aren't part of it. They are an important part of Fra Diavolo, and Babes in Toyland was completely re-written to revolve around them. The storyline of Swiss Miss, on the other hand, could very well have survived without them -- the conflict between composer Victor Albert (Walter Woolf King) and his diva wife, Anna (Della Lind), is what pushes the film forward. The dilemmas suffered by mousetrap salesmen Stan and Ollie are superfluous -- the duo only seem to be around as comic relief. Since the picture stars them (and is deadly dull when they aren't around), this should have been reversed. And even some of the funniest jokes are flawed -- we only briefly see the ape once before he suddenly reappears to torment Stan and Ollie while they're trying to transport the piano across a rickety bridge. Others, like the scene between Stan, the St. Bernard, and the flask remain timeless classics. Even scenes not so gag-filled, such as Ollie trying to serenade Anna (with Stan on sousaphone), and the end chase between the boys and the hotel's angry chef (Adia Kutznetzoff), have a certain comic magic. These parts of Swiss Miss make the film worthwhile; it would have been better if most of the singing and dancing (and the romantic subplot) had been left on the cutting room floor.