| The Finishing Touch | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Clyde Bruckman |
| Written by | H.M. Walker |
| Produced by | Hal Roach |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | George Stevens |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
Release date |
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Running time | 19 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Languages |
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The Finishing Touch is a 1928 short comedy silent film produced by Hal Roach, directed by Clyde Bruckman, and starring Laurel and Hardy. It was released on February 25, 1928, by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Stan and Ollie are contracted by a homeowner to expedite the construction of his residence, with the promise of a $500 incentive for timely completion. Despite their earnest efforts, the duo encounters a series of mishaps, exacerbated by the interference of a nearby hospital's head nurse, who enlists a policeman to enforce noise regulations. The policeman inadvertently becomes the target of various misfortunes, including being struck by falling construction materials.
Upon completing the house, the homeowner initially expresses satisfaction and compensates Stan and Ollie accordingly. However, their triumph is short-lived when a minor incident involving a bird leads to the chimney's collapse, compromising the structural integrity of the entire dwelling. Infuriated, the homeowner demands the return of the $500 bonus. Stan and Ollie, unwilling to relinquish their earnings, engage in resourceful tactics to retain the disputed funds.
The Finishing Touch was filmed in November and December 1927. The film is a descendant of two of the duo's solo films: Laurel's Smithy (1924) and Hardy's Stick Around (1925). The paperhanger character played by Hardy in the latter film "was justly important to [Hardy], originating an embryonic form of his eventual screen character." [1]
The Finishing Touch is set in an area undergoing real estate development in 1927; its wide open spaces provide a sense of a more pastoral Los Angeles that would soon vanish as more structures filled it in. The ill-fated structure in question was built by the Roach construction team on Motor Avenue near the Fox studio. It was supposed to collapse completely when the duo's truck rolled through it, but an overzealous crew ignored designer Thomas Benton Roberts's design specifications and made it too sturdy — so the truck lodged halfway through and ground to a stop. [2]
The Finishing Touch was filmed on location in the neighborhood of Cheviot Hills, Los Angeles. The house under construction in the film was located at 2830 Motor Avenue and was destroyed after filming. The hospital scene was filmed at 2728 McConnell Drive, at a house that still stands today. Additionally, several other houses in Cheviot Hills can be seen in the background, most prominently 2839 Forrester Drive. [3]
L&H historian Randy Skretvedt unearthed the original action script for The Finishing Touch and discovered gags that were either unfilmed or unused in the finished picture. One gag finds Stan and Ollie in adjacent rooms: Ollie drives a nail into the wall to hang his coat, but in the next room, the nail snags Stan's sleeve, so he drives it back out. On his side of the wall, Ollie cannot figure out why his coat is on the floor, but he has his suspicions. Just as he steps into Stan's room to confront him, Stan has stepped into his through another door. The nail gets hammered back and forth until it ultimately hits pay dirt — in the beleaguered hide of cop Kennedy. [2]
The script also provided additional backstory on how the duo came to be hired to work on the house: an unfilmed scene portrayed the original construction crew having the same difficulties with the same folks from the same nearby hospital and quitting in frustration. Another change from the script was definitely an improvement: by the time the cameras rolled, the stern male physician of the script had morphed into the petite but spicy nurse played by Dorothy Coburn. Her spirited domination of both The Boys and Kennedy is made all the funnier by her gender and small stature. She makes up in spunk what she lacks in body mass — Skretvedt calls her "the quintessential tough-cookie." [2]
The picture's finale also evolved between script and screen. In the final film, a dainty animated bird alights on the chimney, triggering a domino-effect collapse of the entire house. On the printed page, Stan himself was to be the catalyst for the implosion: he left his derby on the roof, and when he clambers up to get it, the catastrophic sequence commences. As different items tremble and fall, the homeowner takes back more of the money he has paid them until he has taken all of it back. [2]
Glenn Mitchell has noted that The Finishing Touch is one of the few Laurel and Hardy silents with both British and American versions extant today. In an era when primitive film stocks did not permit many generations of copies to be made from a master, producers often set up multiple cameras during shooting to obtain more first-generation elements to work with. These extra negatives often became prints for foreign markets. Consequently, the films would feature slightly different angles and sometimes variations in action or editing. Mitchell writes:
Today's American edition, he writes, originates from the Blackhawk Films master and combines footage from both versions.
The Finishing Touch is considered a prototype film for Laurel and Hardy, marking the first of their "workingman" pictures, where their professional task itself becomes the backbone of the plot. Films such as Dirty Work, Busy Bodies, and The Music Box all descend from The Finishing Touch. [1]
Glenn Mitchell, author of The Laurel & Hardy Encyclopedia, commented, "The Finishing Touch is enjoyable despite an over-reliance on slapstick. One ingenious sight gag [is when] Stan appears to be supporting both ends of a lengthy piece of timber." [1] William K. Everson, author of The Films of Laurel and Hardy, delivered a mixed review in 1967, stating, "Considering the promise it offers, The Finishing Touch is a slight disappointment. The climactic gags lack the force and 'boff' quality that the build-up has led us to expect, and the whole short has a somewhat mechanical flavor to it. Nevertheless, it has energy, and the problems of house construction... provide every gag with anticipation as well as culmination." [4] Janiss Garza of AllMovie said, "This two-reel Laurel and Hardy silent is especially rich in slapstick.... This silly little film doesn't have much plot to speak of, but it's so well constructed, and the humor is so solid, it doesn't matter." [5] Randy Skretvedt, author of Laurel and Hardy: The Magic Behind the Movies, is more guarded in his assessment, saying, "If The Finishing Touch isn't as memorable as the films which preceded it, it's a pleasant enough little picture." [2] British film critic Leslie Halliwell commented, "Excellent early star slapstick with predictable but enjoyable gags." [6]
Laurel and Hardy were a British-American comedy team during the early Classical Hollywood era of American cinema, consisting of Englishman Stan Laurel (1890–1965) and American Oliver Hardy (1892–1957). Starting their career as a duo in the silent film era, they later successfully transitioned to "talkies". From the late 1920s to the mid-1950s, they were internationally famous for their slapstick comedy, with Laurel playing the clumsy, childlike friend to Hardy's pompous bully. Their signature theme song, known as "The Cuckoo Song", "Ku-Ku", or "The Dance of the Cuckoos" was heard over their films' opening credits, and became as emblematic of them as their bowler hats.
The Music Box is a Laurel and Hardy short film comedy released in 1932. It was directed by James Parrott, produced by Hal Roach and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The film, which depicts the pair attempting to move a piano up a long flight of steps, won the first Academy Award for Best Live Action Short (Comedy) in 1932. In 1997, it was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". The film is widely seen as the most iconic Laurel and Hardy short, with the featured stairs becoming a popular tourist attraction.
Harley M. Walker was a member of the Hal Roach Studios production company from 1916 until his resignation in 1932. The title cards he wrote for Harold Lloyd, Charley Chase, Our Gang and Laurel and Hardy comedies "have entered legend, both for silent films, and as opening remarks for the earlier talkies." He was also an officer of the Roach Studio corporation.
Laurel and Hardy were a motion picture comedy team whose official filmography consists of 106 films released between 1921 and 1951. Together they appeared in 34 silent shorts,A 45 sound shorts, and 27 full-length sound feature films.B In addition to these, Laurel and Hardy appeared in at least 20 foreign-language versions of their films and a promotional film, Galaxy of Stars (1936), produced for European film distributors.
James Henderson Finlayson was a Scottish actor who worked in both silent and sound comedies. Balding, with a fake moustache, he had many trademark comic mannerisms—including his squinting, outraged double-take reactions, and his characteristic exclamation: "D'ooooooh!" He is the best remembered comic foil of Laurel and Hardy.
Big Business is a 1929 silent Laurel and Hardy comedy short subject directed by James W. Horne and supervised by Leo McCarey from a McCarey (uncredited) and H. M. Walker script. The film, largely about tit-for-tat vandalism between Laurel and Hardy as Christmas tree salesmen and the man who rejects them, was deemed culturally significant and entered into the National Film Registry in 1992.
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You're Darn Tootin' is a silent short subject directed by E. Livingston Kennedy starring comedy duo Laurel and Hardy. It was released on April 21, 1928, by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Unaccustomed As We Are is the first sound film comedy starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, released on May 4, 1929.
Should Married Men Go Home? is a silent short subject co-directed by Leo McCarey and James Parrott, starring comedy duo Laurel and Hardy. It was the first Hal Roach film to bill Laurel and Hardy as a team. Previous appearances together were billed under the Roach "All-Star Comedy" banner. It was released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer on September 8, 1928. McCarey is also one of the script writers for the film.
Habeas Corpus is a synchronized sound short subject comedy film co-directed by Leo McCarey and James Parrott starring comedy duo Laurel and Hardy. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized orchestral musical score with sound effects. It was released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer on December 1, 1928. This film is importantly historically as the first Laurel and Hardy film to be released with recorded sound.
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That's My Wife is a 1929 synchronized sound short subject film produced by the Hal Roach Studios and starring Laurel and Hardy. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized orchestral musical score with sound effects. It was shot in December 1928 and released March 23, 1929, by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
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Be Big! is a Hal Roach three-reel comedy starring Laurel and Hardy. It was shot in November and December 1930, and released on February 7, 1931.
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The Live Ghost is a 1934 American comedy short film starring Laurel and Hardy, directed by Charles Rogers, and produced by Hal Roach at his studios in Culver City, California.
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Randy Skretvedt is an American film and music scholar, author, lecturer and broadcaster. His 1987 book Laurel and Hardy: The Magic Behind the Movies is the reference standard for Laurel and Hardy fans. In 2016, Skretvedt put the book through a massive update and enhancement, retitling it LAUREL AND HARDY: THE MAGIC BEHIND THE MOVIES and publishing it through Bonaventure Press as an oversized 8-1/2 x 11 hardcover book, increasing the text by 50% and quadrupling the number of pictures included. Early supporters of the Kickstarter campaign for this edition also received a custom audio CD of selected excerpts from Mr. Skretvedt's interviews with Laurel and Hardy colleagues and co-workers.