Cathardincu Surprisingly incoherent and boring

JinRoz For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Robert J. Maxwell Silent. Stan and Ollie show up to finish the job of building a house. They don't do it.The roughly slapped together structure has innumerable props that the two use in comic incidents, often repeated. Ollie, for instance, must carry a mouthful of nails and is bumped on the head or something so that he swallows them (three times).They're visited by a cop, an almost unrecognizably young Edgar Kennedy, who warns them to keep it quiet because of the nearby hospital. Kennedy leans against a pile of boards stacked against the wall. The boards fall down with a clatter, accompanied by Kennedy.Actually, it's not as slow as some of their "working man" efforts. The pace is brisk. And perhaps the neatest scene has the two bumblers playing toss and catch with a bundle of money while the owner of the house tries to intercept it.It's probably one of their better shorts.

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.

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.

The Big Combo 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.