James Parrott directed Two Tars, as well as many other classic L&H shorts, such as Helpmates, Perfect Day and The Music Box.  Later he turned more to screenwriting and contributed to Way out West and Blockheads.

James Finlayson, the unlucky house-owner in Big Business, was described by Halliwell in the Filmgoer’s Companion as –

‘…an indispensable comic villain, famous for the exaggerated reaction known as a ‘double-take and fade away’.  A memorable opponent for Laurel and Hardy.’

One of those apocryphal-sounding Hollywood tales surrounds the making of Big Business.  According to producer Hal Roach, location scouts took pictures of different bungalows and showed them to director James V. Horne.  He picked one that happened to belong to a studio worker, and made a deal with the guy to take his wife away on holiday for a month, during which time they planned to wreck his house and put it back together again.  However – supposedly – when the film crew arrived they got the wrong house.  With a couple of days’ shooting remaining – and with the place looking like a bombsite – the real family showed up and practically fainted on the spot.

To be taken with a pinch of salt, methinks…