thinbeach The point of the film seems to be: Look how silly this is.Stan and Ollie are contracted to build a house, but as expected, are so useless they only end up destroying things. Every joke is entirely predictable, and even the few chuckles are undermined by a too-casual pace. Most jokes aren't that funny to begin with, so lingering on them certainly doesn't help. Then comes the ending where I guess they want you to believe that throwing things at each other is funny. Who was their target audience, five year olds?If this is your first silent slapstick then who knows, perhaps you will enjoy it more, but being familiar with the genre this one ranks very lowly. With films like 'One Week' and 'The Electric House', Keaton achieved far more laughs out of faulty houses than you'll find here, while Chaplin's 'Pay Day' has much cleverer construction site gags.Given the amount of shorts Stan and Ollie were churning out at the time, I wouldn't be surprised if this thing was put together very quickly, without much foresight.

JoeytheBrit This has got to be one of Laurel & Hardy's funniest silent comedies. They play a pair of labourers hired by a desperate builder to fit windows to a house. This would be difficult enough for the boys, but an added complication is the fact that the house is directly opposite a hospital, meaning that they must try to carry out their duties in near silence.There are some beautiful sight gags in this one: Stan looking around in bewilderment for a pail he has inadvertently hooked onto the end of his shovel, Stan (again) carrying both ends of an improbably large plank, and Stan (yet again) attempting to saw a plank with a wobbly saw. It's real schoolboy stuff, I know, but it still had me howling with laughter. Edgar Kennedy, master of the slow-burn, plays the hapless cop whose attempts to ensure the boys keep quiet prove futile. The name of the nurse who thinks nothing of using a few well-aimed punches in order to keep the peace escapes me, but she's pretty cute. Be sure to see this one if you get the chance.

MartinHafer THE FINISHING TOUCH is a film typical of classic Laurel and Hardy films. There are many aspects of it that are seen in their other films. For instance, they boys are building a house and is very reminiscent of a few of their films such as BUSY BODIES and DIRTY WORK--all films where the team are trying to build or fix things and end up destroying everything around them. Additionally, at the end of the film, there is a big fight scene that sure brings to mind their BIG BUSINESS, TWO TARS and THE BATTLE OF THE CENTURY. Now all this familiarity isn't bad--especially when the films are as enjoyable and fun as all the ones I just listed.Stan and Ollie are contracted to do the finishing work on a new house. However, since they are idiots, the tend to mostly break everything and hurt themselves in the process. In addition to Ollie getting the worst of many of these accidents, an innocent cop (Edgar Kennedy) gets banged around pretty badly as well--even though he was just an innocent bystander--a particularly even-tempered one at that. The film ends with the home being pretty much like you'd expect if Stan and Ollie had built it and there are many wonderful stunts at the end of the film.Overall, it's a lot of fun and is one of the better silent shorts the team made.By the way, watch the dump truck scene near the beginning. The truck dumps a load but only moments later the load magically vanishes due to poor editing and continuity. It doesn't ruin the film at all but I am surprised they didn't fix this mistake.

Michael_Elliott Finishing Touch, The (1928) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Laurel and Hardy play finishers who are offered an extra $500 if they can finish a house in one day. The boys set out to make the extra money but soon a nurse (Dorothy Coburn) and a cop (Edgar Kennedy) start getting in their way. This silent short is a rather mixed bag as it features a lot of funny moments but the comedy isn't really ever hysterical but instead just mild laughs. The majority of the film goes for slapstick comedy, which includes Hardy stepping on nails, Laurel tripping over boards and that type of stuff. The cop of course plays the rival to the boys who keeps getting caught up in their madness and taking most of the abuse. Kennedy is quite good in his role but it's actually Coburn who steals the film when she decides to beat up the boys because of how much noise they're making.