ROy Atwell's godawful stuttering overacting by wife (Rosalind Marquis)
I am not the most politically correct person alive...although some may think so when I say I absolutely HATE Roy Atwell's character in this Vitaphone short. His shtick is stuttering and several actors during his time specialized in being 'funny' by stuttering. It wasn't funny in the 1930s...just tedious. And today it's generally viewed as offensive as well. I just wanted to throttle his character and scream "STOP that stuttering...it's NOT funny!".
So is this short any good in spite of Atwell? Well, technically speaking it's lovely to look at--as the film is in spectacular Three Color Technicolor...a true color process (unlike previous systems like Cinecolor and Two Color Technicolor which didn't present a full spectrum of colors--they tended to be more orangy and green than true color). It also looks good with Yosemite Valley subbing for Switzerland. IMDb doesn't say it's Yosemite but I clearly recognized the mountains and waterfall from a recent visit.
How about the story? Well, it's about a group of annoying tourists who are brought into the mountains by Johann (Fred Lawrence). He breaks out into song for no logical reason but he does have a lovely voice. When he takes the annoying tourists to a nearby chalet because of a storm, they meet a nice old clock maker and his lovely daughter--who Johann is smitten with and hasn't, up until then, told her this. There's a lot of Swiss-style dancing, a cute St. Bernard and the usual Alpine trappings such as yodeling and beer...much like actually taking a trip there instead of California! A bit schmaltzy but aside from Atwell, not a bad little film.