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The Finishing
Touch
(1928)

This short comedy, directed by Clyde Bruckman, stars Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, with Dorothy Coburn, Edgar Kennedy and Sam Lufkin.

Flicker Alley
2024 Blu-ray Disc edition

Laurel & Hardy: Year Two (1927-1929), black & white, 212 minutes total, not rated, including The Finishing Touch (1928), black & white, ? minutes, not rated.

Flicker Alley, FA0086, UPC 6-17311-68869-0.
One single-sided, dual-layered, Regions ABC Blu-ray Disc (two BDs in the set); 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in pillarboxed 16:9 (1920 x 1080 pixels) 24 fps progressive scan image encoded in SDR AVC format at ? Mbps average video bit rate; LPCM 2.0 stereo sound encoded at ? Mbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, optional English language SDH subtitles; chapter stops; 36-page insert booklet; standard two-disc BD keepcase; $49.95.
Release date: 29 October 2024 (advance), 22 November 2024 (street).
Country of origin: USA

This Blu-ray Disc edition has been mastered from archival and private collection prints. The collection has been curated by L&H historians Randy Skretvedt, Richard W. Bann, Serge Bromberg and Eric Lange.

The films are accompanied by music scores composed and performed by Neil Brand, Antonio Coppola and Andrea Benz.

Supplementary material includes audio commentaries for each film by L&H historians Randy Skretvedt and Richard W. Bann; audio interviews conducted by Randy Skretvedt with Anita Garvin, Thomas Benton Roberts and Hal Roach; a 1959 interview with Stan Laurel; “Laurel & Hardy On-Location in Year Two,” a video essay by historian John Bengtson on selected location exteriors — always fascinating information and worth many viewings; a rare one-reel fragment of the Charley Chase short Now I’ll Tell One (1927); “George Mann’s Home Movies” of the Roach studio; an image gallery containing original publicity materials, press reviews and rare production stills; and a 36-page insert booklet featuring an introduction to the collection by Serge Bromberg and Eric Lange, an article on the Roach studio actors and crew by Sara Imogen Smith, an essay on the development of the Vitaphone sound-on-disc system in 1928; and notes on each film by historian Randy Skretvedt.

This is our recommended home video edition of the film.

This Regions ABC Blu-ray Disc edition is available directly from . . .

Hal Roach Studios
1998 DVD edition

The Lost Films of Laurel and Hardy, The Complete Collection, Volume One (1918-1929), black & white, 124 minutes total, not rated, including The Finishing Touch (1928), black & white, 23 minutes, not rated.

Hal Roach Studios, HRS 4791, UPC 0-14381-47912-6.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD disc; 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in full-frame 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan image encoded in SDR MPEG-2 format at 4.8 Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to 60 fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 mono sound encoded at 384 Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no subtitles; 6 chapter stops; snapper DVD case (reissued in standard DVD keepcase); $29.99.
Release date: 22 December 1998.
Country of origin: USA

This DVD edition has been mastered from 35mm print elements. We have seen some of the films from this collection on laserdisc and VHS videotape, and we have seen other DVD releases in this series. Our hipshot opinion of the DVD is that some films will look very good (transferred from the original 35mm negatives) and others may be passable at best, usually films transferred from the best surviving material in the possession of Hal Roach Studios.

The films are accompanied by a cobbled-together soundtrack of vintage recordings, some from other Laurel and Hardy shorts, if not the film’s original synchronized soundtrack.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued
and is . . .