The Finishing Touch was filmed in November and December 1927 in an area undergoing real estate development ; its wide open spaces provide a sense of a more pastoral Los Angeles that would soon vanish as more structures filled it in. We are on location in the neighborhood of Cheviot Hills, Los Angeles with the house under construction located at 2830 Motor Avenue (it was destroyed after filming). The hospital scene was filmed at 2728 McConnell Drive, at a house that still stands today. Additionally, several other houses in Cheviot Hills can be seen in the background, most prominently 2839 Forrester Drive. The meta-film experience is delightfully apparent when a car drives by in the background at 5:36. No, it’s not a ‘picture car’ put there on purpose. Somebody was tooling about L.A. that day and happened to drive past a crew shooting a two-reel slapstick comedy. Perhaps he looked over (we can’t see the driver) and decided to pull up and check out the action. If so, I would like to think that the cast and crew, in the free-wheeling spirit of slapstick comedy vets, invited him to stay for lunch…and then dumped a bowl of soup on his head as a form of ‘initiation’ to the world of two-reel comedy picture-making.