SWISS TOUR
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TRAILER FOR SWISS TOUR (1949). SOURCE: YOUTUBE.
In Leopold Lindtberg's SWISS TOUR, American soldiers stationed in Europe in the aftermath of WWII are on leave in Switzerland. Among them is marine Stanley Robin (Cornel Wilde) who loses his heart to a watch seller Suzanne (Josette Day). In the glamorous nightlife of Zermatt, however, seductive Yvonne (Simone Signoret) puts their young love to the test. But Stanley, a lovelorn soldier, moves heaven and earth to win back Suzanne by entering a ski race at the foot of the Matterhorn.
Long elusive on home video, the discovery and excavation of SWISS TOUR's nitrate 35mm film elements in a New York City warehouse made for a fascinating archival project at GME. Jon Gartenberg wrote about the process of unearthing SWISS TOUR and making it available on DVD and DSL for the first time: "My colleague Jeff Capp and I uncovered pristine 35mm nitrate film elements in a commercial warehouse storage facility in the metropolitan New York City area. They proved to be the best known surviving physical elements in the entire world; thus, archival work not only involves the discovery of 'lost' films, but also identifying the highest quality celluloid elements that are to be used as preservation master material. In 2006, my company repatriated these materials to the Cinémathèque suisse in Lausanne; the film was subsequently preserved in 35mm, and the World Premiere restoration was shown at the Locarno Film Festival in August 2007."
GME subsequently collaborated with Praesens Film to produce a digital edition of SWISS TOUR. Our DVD is accompanied by an original essay by scholar Yvonne Zimmermann about the film, Praesens Film, and the larger cultural context in which these films were produced, together with an introduction by Gartenberg about rediscovering SWISS TOUR. Bonus materials include newsreels about American servicemen in Switzerland, the arrival of the movie stars for the filming of SWISS TOUR, and behind-the-scenes production footage in full view of the Matterhorn.
Gartenberg's full essay on the rediscovery of Lindtberg’s film, which was published in a dual-language booklet by Schweizer Filmklassiker for the DVD release of the film, can be read here:
