''The Cat's-Paw'' (
1934
Events
January–February
* January 1 – The International Telecommunication Union, a specialist agency of the League of Nations, is established.
* January 15 – The 8.0 1934 Nepal–Bihar earthquake, Nepal–Bihar earthquake strik ...
) is a comedy film starring
Harold Lloyd
Harold Clayton Lloyd, Sr. (April 20, 1893 – March 8, 1971) was an American actor, comedian, and stunt performer who appeared in many silent comedy films.Obituary ''Variety'', March 10, 1971, page 55.
One of the most influential film co ...
and directed by
Sam Taylor. It was Lloyd's seventh and final collaboration with Taylor and the fourth of his seven starring roles in sound.
''The Cat’s Paw'', a novel by
Clarence Budington Kelland
Clarence Budington "Bud" Kelland (July 11, 1881 – February 18, 1964) was an American writer. Prolific and versatile, he was a prominent literary figure in his heyday, and he described himself as "the best second-rate writer in America".
Kelland ...
, had appeared in the ''
Saturday Evening Post
''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine, currently published six times a year. It was issued weekly under this title from 1897 until 1963, then every two weeks until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely c ...
'' from August 26-September 30, 1933, when Lloyd read it, and decided to buy the rights to it for $25,000.
Plot
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 the corrupt political machine of the fictional city of Stockport, 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
Li Po
Li Bai (, 701–762), also pronounced as Li Bo, courtesy name Taibai (), was a Chinese poet, acclaimed from his own time to the present as a brilliant and romantic figure who took traditional poetic forms to new heights. He and his friend Du Fu ...
(pronounced "Ling Po" in the story), 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, detaining them in the "cellar of Tien Wang." He tells them that since his attempts to use western methods have 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 Cobb has enlisted the help of ''The Great Chang'' a famous Chinese
magician
Magician or The Magician may refer to:
Performers
* A practitioner of magic (supernatural)
* A practitioner of magic (illusion)
* Magician (fantasy), a character in a fictional fantasy context
Entertainment
Books
* ''The Magician'', an 18th-ce ...
on his first American tour, and that they are using his tricks to fake the executions.
This tactic works, and Mayor 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 Pratt (
Una Merkel
Una Merkel (December 10, 1903 – January 2, 1986) was an American stage, film, radio, and television actress.
Merkel was born in Kentucky and acted on stage in New York in the 1920s. She went to Hollywood in 1930 and became a popular film ...
), 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.
Production notes
In an early scene, Cobb, as a young boy newly arrived in China, is given a book written by
Ling Po. In the closeup of the cover, the words 靈普哲學心理論述 (''A Treatise on Philosophy and Psychology'' by Ling Pu) are seen. However, a subsequent closeup of an open page of the book shows an excerpt from the ''
Analects of Confucius
The ''Analects'' (; ; Old Chinese: '' ŋ(r)aʔ''; meaning "Selected Sayings"), also known as the ''Analects of Confucius'', the ''Sayings of Confucius'', or the ''Lun Yu'', is an ancient Chinese book composed of a large collection of sayings a ...
''.
Cast
*
Harold Lloyd
Harold Clayton Lloyd, Sr. (April 20, 1893 – March 8, 1971) was an American actor, comedian, and stunt performer who appeared in many silent comedy films.Obituary ''Variety'', March 10, 1971, page 55.
One of the most influential film co ...
as Ezekiel Cobb
*
Una Merkel
Una Merkel (December 10, 1903 – January 2, 1986) was an American stage, film, radio, and television actress.
Merkel was born in Kentucky and acted on stage in New York in the 1920s. She went to Hollywood in 1930 and became a popular film ...
as Petunia Pratt
*
George Barbier as Jake Mayo
*
Nat Pendleton
Nathaniel Greene Pendleton (August 9, 1895 – October 12, 1967) was an American Olympic wrestler, film actor, and stage performer. His younger brother, Edmund J. Pendleton (1899-1987), was a well-known music composer and choir maste ...
as Strozzi
*
Grace Bradley
Grace Bradley (September 21, 1913 – September 21, 2010) was an American film actress who was active in Hollywood during the 1930s.
Early life
Bradley was born in Brooklyn and was an only child. As a child, she took piano lessons and, by the ...
as Dolores Doce
*
Alan Dinehart
Mason Alan Dinehart Sr. (born Harold Alan Dinehart; October 3, 1889 – July 18, 1944) was an American actor, director, writer, and stage manager.
Biography
Dinehart initially studied to be a priest, but he turned to the theater instead. ...
as Mayor Ed Morgan
*
Grant Mitchell as Silk Hat McGee
*
E. Alyn Warren as Tien Wang (credited as Fred Warren)
*
Warren Hymer
Edgar Warren Hymer (February 25, 1906 – March 25, 1948) was an American theatre and film actor.
Early life
He was born in New York City. His father, John Bard Hymer (1875/1876 – 1953) was a playwright (with nine Broadway plays to ...
as 'Spike' Slattery
*
J. Farrell MacDonald
John Farrell MacDonald (June 6, 1875 – August 2, 1952) was an American character actor and director. He played supporting roles and occasional leads. He appeared in over 325 films over a four-decade career from 1911 to 1951, and directed fort ...
as Shigley (credited as J. Farrell Macdonald)
*
Matt McHugh
Matthew O. McHugh (January 22, 1894 – February 22, 1971) was an American film actor who appeared in more than 200 films between 1931 and 1955, primarily in small cameo parts.
Career
McHugh came from a theatrical family. His parents ran a s ...
as Taxi Driver
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Cats-Paw, The
1934 films
1934 comedy films
American political comedy films
American political satire films
American black-and-white films
Films directed by Sam Taylor
Fox Film films
Films with screenplays by Sam Taylor (director)
1930s American films