Simply A Masterpiece

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were comedic geniuses, individually and together, and their partnership was deservedly iconic and one of the best there was. They left behind a large body of work, a vast majority of it being entertaining to classic comedy, at their best they were hilarious and their best efforts were great examples of how to do comedy without being juvenile or distasteful.While not classic Laurel and Hardy, later films, short and feature, had stronger chemistry when fully formed and used their considerable talents better, 'The Finishing Touch' is a lot of fun. Before, Laurel was much funnier and more interesting while Hardy in most of the previous outings had too little to do. 'The Finishing Touch', along with 'Leave Em Laughing', is one of their first very good efforts, to me it's easily one of their best at this point of their careers and one of the first to feel like a Laurel and Hardy short rather than a short featuring them.'The Finishing Touch' does take a little too long to get going perhaps.Also found that the ending was on the slightly clumsy side.Laurel however is very funny, and sometimes hilarious. It is wonderful seeing Hardy having more to do and he is on Laurel's level and actually even funnier. The chemistry is certainly much more here than in previous outings of theirs, namely because there's more of them together and it was starting to feel like a partnership. Support is nice, particularly from Dorothy Coburn. A good deal of the humour is well timed, hugely energetic and very funny if not always hilarious, with everything going at a lively pace and there is a lot of charm and good nature to keep one going. 'The Finishing Touch' looks quite good still.In summary, a lot of fun. 8/10 Bethany Cox

THE FINISHING TOUCH, a silent short featuring Laurel & Hardy and shot in 1928, features one of my favourite gags ever put on film: Ollie insists on carrying a handful of nails in his mouth, with predictable results. Yes, it's entirely silly and doesn't even get close to realistic, but nevertheless the execution and acting on the part of Hardy make this one of the funniest things I've seen.Elsewhere, THE FINISHING TOUCH is a very good effort from the twosome. As in all of their best plots, they play a couple of workmen, here trying to build a 'dream home'; what transpires will surprise nobody. The gags are laboured, occasionally forced, and of the most basic slapstick, and yet they work, and work, and work. The only downside is that this is a silent, so it misses all of the crashing sound effects that would have added immeasurably to the experience.

Sunday July 16, 12:30pm The Castro, San Francisco"If you must make noise – make it quietly."Stan and Ollie play bumbling carpenters attempting to finish a house across the street from a hospital. Edgar Kennedy plays the cop who keeps a close eye on their progress, and inevitable demolition of the house. In one shot, he stands and watches Stan walk past carrying the end of a board on his shoulder. As the board passes by for what seems like a very long time, Kennedy is surprised to see that Stan is also shouldering the other end! He is repeatedly hit over the head, doused in a bucket of glue, then covered with roofing shingles and later flung into a trough of wet plaster for his troubles. Ollie accidentally swallows the handful of nails he puts in his mouth, three times! The two have some fun with an irate nurse. Stan rips a sheet of sandpaper in half when she bends over, so of course she thinks … The finale includes a rock throwing fight with their boss and their large truck with faulty breaks rolling into and completely destroying the house.

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.