The Cat's-Paw

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The Cat's-Paw
Directed by	Sam Taylor
Produced by	Harold Lloyd
Written by	Sam Taylor Clarence Budington Kelland (story)
Starring	Harold Lloyd Una Merkel George Barbier
Music by	Alfred Newman
Cinematography	Bernard W. Burton
Editing by	Alan Osbiston
Distributed by	Fox Film Corporation
Release date(s)	July 30, 1934
Running time	102 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
IMDb profile

The Cats-Paw is a 1934 film starring Harold Lloyd and directed by Sam Taylor. It was one of the great silent movie comedian's few sound films.

[edit] Plot summary

Ezekiel Cobb, a naive young man raised by missionaries in China, is sent to the United States to seek a wife. He is promptly enlisted by a corrupt political machine, led by the corrupt boss Jake Mayo (George Barbier) to run for mayor as phony "reform" politician. He is expected to be the "cat's paw" of the political machine.

Cobb unexpectedly takes his job seriously. Frequently quoting Chinese poet "Ling Po" (an apparent mispronunciation of Li Po), he embarks on a campaign to clean his town of its corrupt political machine.

Fighting back, the corrupt politicians frame Cobb. He turns the table on them, however, by enlisting the help of his friends in the local Chinese community, who help him kidnap and threaten the corrupt politicians and their hoodlum backers.

This tactic works, and Mayo decides to throw his support to Cobb after all. The town is swept of its corruption and Mayo, with the support of local girl Petunia Prat (Una Merkel), abandons plans to return to China and stays in the U.S. to fight corruption in his town.

[edit] External links

• The Cat's-Paw at Internet Movie Database
• Time Magazine review (August 27, 1934)

v • d • e Feature films starring Harold Lloyd
Silent	A Sailor-Made Man (1921) • Grandma's Boy (1922) • Doctor Jack (1922) • Safety Last! (1923) • Why Worry? (1923) • Girl Shy (1924) • Hot Water (1924) • The Freshman (1925) • For Heaven's Sake (1926) • The Kid Brother (1927) • Speedy (1928) • Welcome Danger (1929, released 2005)
Sound	Welcome Danger (1929) • Feet First (1930) • Movie Crazy (1932) • The Cat's-Paw (1934) • The Milky Way (1936) • Professor Beware (1938) • The Sin of Harold Diddlebock (1947)