Das unfertige Fertighaus

This is Laurel & Hardy the way most people like to remember them: as day laborers in denim, hard at work on a construction project which is, of course, doomed. Here they are "finishers" who have promised a homeowner they can complete work on his house for $500. The house happens to be located near a hospital, so a cop and tough nurse must persuade the boys to work quietly. Within this loose framework of a plot the guys are free to wreak havoc on the house, the cop, the nurse, and each other.

The Finishing Touch was made early in the L&H partnership, and is enjoyable if you're in the mood for basic slapstick knockabout. There are a lot of great gags here, but somehow this slapstick lacks the deft assurance -- the finesse, if you will -- of their later films with similar setups, such as Hog Wild or Busy Bodies. As contradictory as it sounds, the boys became more expert at portraying ineptitude as they "matured." Later on, too, at least in their best work, the gags seemed to occur spontaneously; here, some of the material feels rather forced. Prime example: Ollie repeatedly swallows a handful of nails due to his insistence on carrying them in his mouth. Now, even in low comedy, you need a more plausible set-up than that. Does any builder carry nails around in his mouth? Having swallowed one mouthful, would he do it again? Ollie is too dumb here. This is the sort of flaw one expects to find in their much later movies from the '40s, when the team was being mishandled by unsympathetic studio hacks. Laurel & Hardy should be simple and childlike, but not moronic.

Mr. Laurel comes off best in this film, getting lots of mileage out of his magnificently blank expression. He has two especially nice bits: first, when his awkward attempt to hoist a window frame into position results in the frame gradually falling to pieces; and next, when he frightens himself into believing he's lost one of his fingers. Stan could do so much with moments like that.

Also on the plus side, The Finishing Touch offers the sparkling cinematography of George Stevens, as well as several estimable supporting players: Dorothy Coburn as The Tough Nurse, Edgar Kennedy as The Ineffectual Cop, and Sam Lufkin as The Very Unhappy Homeowner. Lufkin figures prominently in the film's spirited finale, when it becomes clear that, despite assurances, the house is not "built like Gibraltar." Lufkin tries to retrieve the paycheck he's given the boys, but they fend him off with ingenuity and vigor. It's the best scene in the picture, a warm-up for the crazed Grab-the-Deed routine in L&H's 1937 masterpiece Way Out West, and a delight to watch.

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.

"The Finishing Touch" is a mostly at one location set movie. Because of this the movie hasn't got to concentrate on the story but can concentrate on the slapstick moments and humor instead.

This time the boys are building an house. But of course everything that can go wrong, goes wrong. And instead of constructors they are are more slowly turning into demolition men.

This is a silent movie, so the movie entirely focuses and relies on its slapstick moments, rather than the dialog or storyline. So fans of simple slapstick humor will find plenty to enjoy in this Laurel & Hardy short.

I for one, however do not regard this movie as a totally successful one. Not all of the comical moments work out hilarious, at least not in the way they could have had and because of that the movie is entirely set on one location, the humor is just too much of the same at times.

Does have its moments but definitely not the best- and one of the more forgettable Laurel & Hardy silent shorts.

7/10

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Less than a year after they were teamed the boys had already hit their stride with this little gem. The emphasis here is particularly on slapstick as a succession of hilarious sight gags eventually culminate in the inevitable orgy of destruction.

In 'The Finishing Touch', directed by a master of slapstick (Clyde Bruckman) and supervised by a pillar of American comedy (Leo McCarey), Laurel and Hardy have fully developed their film personalities. The plot, that reminds Keaton's `One Week' and The Three Stooges `The sitter-downers', is merely an excuse for bringing up the best of the duo's explosive chemistry. The power of their humor relies not in the impact or unawareness of a gag, but in a skillful preparation of the comic situation. Laurel and Hardy's best trick is the anticipation of an effect and the audience's involvement in its prediction. Repetition is fundamental and the pace and timing of the build-up a hard to match one.