Swiss National Day

Today happens to be the Swiss national holiday, commemorating a day back in 1291 when three of the Swiss cantons signed a confederation treaty. As for Switzerland and the movies, it's a natural location for movies because of its Alpine scenery that's useful for mountain sequences and vacation resort sequences. The British had pioneered the tourist trade to the Swiss Alps back in the late 19th century, as can be seen in such movies like the 1939 version of Goodbye, Mr. Chips, where Robert Donat meets Greer Garson on a trip to the Continent and helps her climb the Alps. Or, there's the original version of The Man Who Knew Too Much, which opens at a ski resort. A lot of those Sonja Henie movies had her getting discovered in Switzerland, despite the fact that she was Norwegian. (Of course, much of what passed for Switzerland in those days was done on the backlots.)

As for movies that have Swiss setting having nothing to do with the Alps or tourism? Those are rather more uncommon. A few come to mind, though; first is Walter Huston's Mission to Moscow, which has its opening scenes at the League of Nations, which had its headquarters in Geneva. Another movie with an international organization in Geneva is The Cassandra Crossing, with an international health organization, and a train carring a deadly virus departing from Geneva.