SWISS MISS (1938) Three sheet style A poster by Al Hirschfeld

Vintage original 41 x 81″ (102 x 202 cm.) three sheet style A poster, USA. Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Grete Natzler, Walter Woolf King, Eric Blore, dir: John G. Blystone; Hal Roach/MGM. On linen, near fine.

One of the finest of all posters by the legendary artist Al Hirschfeld. MGM employed Hirschfeld numerous times throughout the 1930s to design campaigns for several comedies in his unique caricature art, and particularly for the great comedy team of Laurel and Hardy.

Operetta was combined with comedy in this story of two mousetrap salesmen who hope to strike it rich in Switzerland. They are swindled out of their money by a cheese maker and must work off their hotel debt. One way is by moving the piano of an operetta composer (whose chambermaid wife Ollie has fallen in love with) across a rope bridge over the Alpines, a bridge on which they meet a gorilla. Only Stan and Ollie could get into a mess like this. The locations were achieved by filming at Big Bear Lake and Lake Arrowhead, CA.

On the poster with the boys is Grete Natzler, Austrian-born operetta singer who made a few films in Germany and England prior to this. This would be her only American film, and it would be her last. This is, needless to say, an extremely scarce poster, and when viewed in person its colors are really vibrant!