The Tobler Soap Company has sponsored a slogan contest that an unemployed young man (Robert Young) wins and the owner of the company (Frank Morgan) places second (!). They both win a two weeks vacation at a fancy resort in the Alps. For the trip Morgan's Rudolph Tobler decides to go incognito and uses the name he won the contest under – Edward Schultz. The movie revolves around mistaken identities – who is rich and who is poor. The snobby hotel head staff (the wonderful Herman Bing and Sig Ruman) and the gold digging Astor character think Young is wealthy and Schultz poor. In the hopes that he will leave the hotel, Bing and Ruman give Schultz not a guest room but the crummiest little room in the hotel. To spice things up, Astor finds out that it is Schultz who is wealthy, Schultz (i.e., Tobler's) daughter (Florence Rice) shows up and immediately falls for Young, and along with her comes Tobler's long time – and nagging – housekeeper played by Edna Mae Oliver. The cast – especially Edna Mae Oliver and Frank Morgan make this movie a delight. It was also fun to see Jack Norton playing yet another drunk – this time at a water fountain. Talk about being typecast! And what an impressive (and somewhat sad) list of uncredited actors – Gustav von Seyffertitz, and Anna Q Nilsson for heaven's sake. Except for the crummy skiing scenes, this movie is a joy to see.
Review of Paradise for Three
