The Cat's-Paw
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| The Cat's-Paw | |
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| 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 the corrupt politicians and their hoodlum backers. He tells them that since his attempts to use western methods has not worked, he is going to use the methods of the ancient Chinese: either they confess or they will be executed.
They take a man into a back room -- everyone says it's a bluff, but then the man screams in terror and a moment later his decapitated body is brought out with his head set on top of his chest. When the second man is taken to the back room, it is shown that the owner of the shop is a magician, and that they are using his tricks to fake the executions.
This tactic works, and Mayo decides to throw his support to Cobb after all. The town is swept of its corruption and Cobb, 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. But his new wife insists on him returning to China.
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