The Finishing Touch (1928)

Really Surprised!

Load of rubbish!!

The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy (themselves), Edgar Kennedy (the cop), Dorothy Coburn (the nurse), Sam Lufkin (the home owner).Director: CLYDE BRUCKMAN. Supervising director: Leo McCarey. Titles: H.M. Walker. Photography: George Stevens. Film editor: Richard Currier. Producer: Hal Roach.Copyright 25 February 1928 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Distributing Corp. A Hal Roach Studios Production. U.S. release: 25 February 1928. 2 reels. COMMENT: Yes, a delightfully entertaining if not exactly over-original Laurel and Hardy entry, which finds the boys playing incompetent house-builders who contrive to swallow (as well as tread on) nails and other sundries, as well as to naturally fall off planks and ladders at every opportunity. However, all the gags and "unintentional" horseplay are, as usual, very cleverly built up, and the delightful slapstick mayhem is cleverly accentuated by the casting of the diminutively attractive Dorothy Coburn as the feisty nurse.

THE FINISHING TOUCH, a silent short featuring Laurel & Hardy and shot in 1928, features one of my favourite gags ever put on film: Ollie insists on carrying a handful of nails in his mouth, with predictable results. Yes, it's entirely silly and doesn't even get close to realistic, but nevertheless the execution and acting on the part of Hardy make this one of the funniest things I've seen.Elsewhere, THE FINISHING TOUCH is a very good effort from the twosome. As in all of their best plots, they play a couple of workmen, here trying to build a 'dream home'; what transpires will surprise nobody. The gags are laboured, occasionally forced, and of the most basic slapstick, and yet they work, and work, and work. The only downside is that this is a silent, so it misses all of the crashing sound effects that would have added immeasurably to the experience.

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy are the most famous comedy duo in history, and deservedly so, so I am happy to see any of their films. Ollie and Stan are professional finishers who pull up outside an unfinished wood house. After stopping the truck from rolling away, the Owner (Sam Lufkin) says he'll pay $500 to finish the house by noon Monday, Ollie says they can finish by noon that day. They begin, and Stan causes Ollie to fall down a gap which would have had a walking board/plank across, and he snaps it when it's put back. While Ollie is chasing Stan, a Nurse (Dorothy Coburn) in the near hospital asks a Policeman (Edgar 'Ed' Kennedy) to stop the noise, which he does, but this quiet won't last for long. Ollie walks across a new bridge made by Stan, which snaps and he falls with his head going through the door he is carrying. The policeman is still there, and a long board appears in front of him, and at the eventually end is Stan, and when his takes this long board back, the policeman jumps seeing him again at the other end. Inside the house Ollie steps on a pile of nails, getting some in his shoe, so Stan comes in to clear them up, getting the bucket handle caught on the end of his shovel. Ollie treads on the nails again trying to help, and he throws his spare bucket out the window, hitting the policeman over. The nurse comes in to punch in the face to stop the noise, and she gets hit stepping over an angled plank, thinking it's Ollie she punches him in the stomach, making his hat spin, and Stan smiling gets it too, with his hat flying off. The nurse leaves before grabbing a hammer when Stan rips a bit of paper when she bends over, she obviously thinks it's her dress. So then they continue working, with Ollie putting a pile of nails in his mouth to use, swallowing it when he trips over with no step, and again when Stan tries to put up a window frame, the previous one fell apart. After kicking Stan, Ollie tries the step and it collapses on him, and the policeman's still snooping around, getting a punch in the face by the nurse still wanting quiet and respect. Ollie puts a walking plank on a window sill to walk on to reach the roof, and swallows yet another pile of nails in his mouth banging his head. Stan starts sawing this walking plank for a measurement, using a saw that keeps bending, and when it saws through and Ollie falls, so too does a glue can and pile of planks, all landing onto the policeman. Finally a strong walking plank is found to walk onto the porch, Ollie manages to walk on it safely, but the porch itself collapses. Eventually the house is finished, just in time for the Owner, but a bird lands on the chimney making it collapse, with a podium and two windows. They all quickly get squabbling for the money meant for payment, with glue and paint being used too, also for the policeman nurse too. The squabble leads to Stan and Ollie grabbing the large rock holding their truck, and it rolls into the house causing it to collapse. Filled with wonderful slapstick and all classic comedy you could want from a black and white silent film, it is an enjoyable film. Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were number 7 on The Comedians' Comedian. Very good!

There is little I can add to the comments offered by the other posters. However, when viewing this film I do see Stan and Babe working on becoming the masterful Babes in the Woods characters we have come to know them. Their timing and interaction is never less than astounding and their fearlessly effective telegraphing of a gag reveals a mastery of their craft that I would argue no other comics have. There was one event that startled me about this film and helped me to appreciate it more. I have been informed by a reliable source that this film is used as a training film at the United States Department of Labor!!!!!!!!!!! What is it used to train people about? The common mistakes that ordinary people make in construction sites or similar situations that place themselves in danger. When film scholars label Stan and Babe as the perfect masters of Reducio ad Absurdum comedy, as they do, perhaps the use this early Stan and Babe effort found itself put to helps prove the point.