The Finishing Touch

Synopsis

The film has them building a house with disastrous results.

Production and exhibition

According to L&H Encyclopedia author Glenn Mitchell, The Finishing Touch is a descendant of two of the duos solo films: Laurels Smithy (1924) and Hardys 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."

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 and more structures filled it in. The ill-fated structure in question here was built by the Roach construction team on Motor Avenue near the Fox studio. It was supposed to collapse completely when The Boys truck rolled through it, but the overzealous crew ignored designer Thomas Benton Robertss design specs and made it too sturdy — so the truck lodged halfway through and ground to a stop.

Script into film

L&H scholar and paper trail detective Randy Skretvedt has 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 in the wall to hang his coat on, but in the next room, the nail snags Stans sleeve so he drives it back out. On his side of the wall, Ollie cant figure why his coat is on the floor, but he has his suspicions; just as he steps into Stans 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.

The script also provided some (probably unnecessary) backstory on how The Boys came to be hired to work on the house to begin with: 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."

The pictures 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 up 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 hes paid them, until hes taken it all back.

Differing versions

Glenn Mitchell has noticed that The Finishing Touch is one of the few Laurel and Hardy silents with both British and American versions extant today. In the era when primitive film stocks didnt permit many generations of copies to be made from a master, producers often set up multiple cameras when shooting so theyd get more first-generation elements to work with — and those extra negatives often became foreign market prints. They would have slightly different angles and sometimes variations in action or cutting. Writes Mitchell:

In The Finishing Touch, this is most obvious in the close-ups of the nurse, which in the British version are presented from a different perspective and with some dissimilar facial reactions to the American equivalent. An amendment in subtitling tells us that nine years of schooling took Laurel and Hardy to the First Reader for American audiences, and the Infants for the British.

Todays American edition, he writes, originates from the Blackhawk Films master and combines footage from both.

Unusual credits

The original theatrical poster carries credits for supporting players Dorothy Coburn and "Ed" Kennedy, most unusual for the L&H one-sheets at that time. Posters typically had just Laurels and Hardys names, plus a small credit for the director — and of course "Hal Roach presents" hovering above all. Kennedys poster credits would evolve from "Ed" to "E. Livingston" to "E.L." over the next two films, both of which he directed.

Cast

Stan Laurel as Stan
Oliver Hardy as Ollie
Ed Kennedy as The Cop
Dorothy Coburn as The Nurse
Sam Lufkin as The Homeowner

Critical reputation

The Finishing Touch is in many ways a prototype film for Laurel and Hardy — the first of their "workingman" pictures, where their professional task itself becomes the backbone of the plot. Dirty Work, Busy Bodies, The Music Box and others all descend from Finishing, critics say.

"The Finishing Touch is enjoyable despite an over-reliance on slapstick," writes Glenn Mitchell. "One ingenious sight gag [is when] Stan appears to be supporting both ends of a lengthy piece of timber."

Critic William K. Everson delivered a mixed report on Finishing in 1967:

Author Janiss Garza likes The Finishing Touch. Writing at Allmovie, she says: "This two-reel Laurel and Hardy silent is especially rich in slapstick.... This silly little film doesnt have much plot to speak of, but its so well constructed, and the humor is so solid, it doesnt matter."

Randy Skretvedt is more guarded in his assessment: "If The Finishing Touch isnt as memorable as the films which preceded it, its a pleasant enough little picture."

Prolific veteran reviewer Leslie Halliwell liked it rather more. "Excellent early star slapstick with predictable but enjoyable gags," he wrote.