Harold Lloyd, der Strohmann

It has to be admitted that the best work of Harold Lloyd ended with his last great silent comedy "Speedy" in 1928. After that he enters sound films (like Chaplin and Keaton and Laurel & Hardy and W.C. Fields) and does do better than Keaton, but not as well as the other three. Chaplin was rich enough to make his own films as producer (but he paced his films so there were five years between productions). Laurel & Hardy were under the protection of Hal Roach, so production standards for their shorts and sound films were pretty good. Fields first worked with Mack Sennett, than with Paramount, and then free-lanced. Lloyd tried the route that Chaplin took, but with less success.

He produced his own films, but unlike Chaplin he did not own his own studio. Also his first two choices were not good (especially "Feet First"). But he did begin to choose more wisely and "Movie Crazy", "The Cat's-Paw", and "The Milky Way" were all good choices. These three (and possibly "The Sin of Harold Diddlebock") were his best sound ventures. They are all entertaining, but none are up to "Safety Last", "The Freshman", "The Kid Brother", or "Speedy".

Of the top four sound films "The Cat's Paw" is the most controversial. Ezekiel Cobb's solution to ridding the city that elects him mayor is very extreme for the tastes of 2005. Or is it? When a movie is made dictates what it's politics are: "The Cat's Paw" is from 1934. That second year of the Roosevelt New Deal (itself rather controversial for heavier government involvement) movie audiences saw films like "Gabriel Over the White House" and "The Phantom President", where our leaders did extra-Constitutional actions to rid the nation of internal enemies (and to force disarmament around the globe). Even Cecil B. De Mille got into this act with "This Day and Age", where a bunch of teenagers use rats to force a gangster to confess his crimes.

To us, the use of violence to force anyone (even a bunch of goons and boodlers like Alan Dinehart's gang) to confess is repellent. After all, the Supreme Court has protected us from confession under duress. What we forget is that the reforms we are thinking of did not occur until the Warren Court and the Burger Court made them. For example, although Mr. Justice Sutherland's opinion in the Powell ("Scottsboro Boys") Case of 1932 guaranteed every criminal defendant had a right to counsel, Gideon v. Wainwright did not extend this to ordering court paid counsel to defendants until 1962. The Miranda Case, with it's now well-known anti-self-incrimination warning is from 1963. Nothing like this were considered necessary in 1934.

If you study other movies of the period up to 1954 (and even to 1960) tricks are used to get confessions - Kirk Douglas confesses his crimes in front of witnesses in "I Walk Alone" while Burt Lancaster holds a gun to him. When Lancaster leaves, Douglas sneers about confessing under duress, only to see the gun is unloaded. Suddenly he realizes that (legally - in 1948) he has confessed without duress. Hate to say it, to any civil libertarians reading this note, but what Cobb/Lloyd does to Dinehart and his pals in the conclusion of "The Cat's Paw" was not only legal, but would have led to their jail sentences in 1934. We may call it heavy handed, fascistic, or horrid, but it would have worked legally when it was thought up.

For those of you looking for the crazy stunts that typified a Harold Lloyd silent comedy, this is not the film for you. What The Cat's-Paw gives us is an interesting and atypical character for Lloyd who was trying to establish himself in sound.

For me the closest movie comparison to Lloyd's character is that of Peter Sellers in Being There. For all the education that Lloyd has received in dealing with the world, he might as well have been brought up in isolation as Sellers was.

But where he was brought up was as a missionary's child in China and I don't know how much Christianity he and his family were able to teach the Chinese, but young Harold has learned the wisdom of Chinese philosopher Lin Po whom he quotes constantly like a fortune cookie aphorism. As it turns out Lin Po turns out to be one wise dude.

Anyway Lloyd's father Samuel S. Hinds has decided his son needs some education in the modern world of 20th century America and he sends him back to be the guest of the pastor of the home church which sponsors the mission. The pastor there is the perennial candidate of the 'reform' movement of that town of Stockport. But no sooner does Lloyd arrive and the pastor dies.

Now the reform movement is a sham and the pastor a patsy of the political bosses who need a straw-man opponent in every election. They decide Lloyd just might be a better patsy than the guy who just died.

Of course as it goes in these type of films the patsy proves to be not so easy a proposition. In fact Lloyd constantly quoting from Lin Po, the way Charlie Chan used to dispense wisdom proves quite the adversary for the crooks who run Stockport. In addition Lloyd gains the admiration of Una Merkel, as cynical a dame as Jean Arthur was in Mr. Deeds and Mr. Smith.

The Cat's-Paw is still a nice political satire though it did not establish Harold Lloyd as big a comedy name as he was in silent films. A nice cast of players was selected by director Sam Taylor topped by George Barbier who plays a political boss who discovers Lloyd and actually proves to have a streak of honesty in him.

This generally enjoyable comedy is unusually satirical for a Harold Lloyd feature, but as long as you don't take it too seriously, it has some very amusing moments. Lloyd's character lets him combine elements of his familiar silent-screen roles plus dialogue and other material that take advantage of the relatively new sound technology. Una Merkel also helps out as a sarcastic young woman who takes an interest in Lloyd's character.

The prologue is a little lengthy, but it works in establishing a positive view of the Chinese culture in which Lloyd's character was raised and which determines his personality, so it serves a purpose. The main part of the movie has Lloyd as Ezekiel, a missionary's son, coming back to the USA and innocently contending against the rampant corruption in the local government and the distorted values of society. Much of it is amusing in a low-key fashion, but eventually it also builds up the tension between Ezekiel and the local political machine.

You always hope for something big in the finale in a Lloyd movie. Here the finale is creative, taking advantage of the possibilities in the story, and making use of sound in addition to the many visual effects. Though slower and not filled with slapstick the way that his great silent film finales were, it caps things off suitably enough.

Like most of Lloyd's sound features, this one doesn't come up to the level of his silent classics. But it does give him a good character to work with, and it is often rather funny as long as you don't read too much into the story and characters.

We hear so much about how the coming of sound ruined careers. This doesn't seem to be the case for Harold Lloyd, who smoothly makes the transition to talkies in 'The Cat's Paw' (1934). The story has Lloyd as missionary's son Ezekiel Cobb raised in rural China. On return to America Cobb becomes a patsy for a political machine, but to everyone's surprise gets elected mayor.

The story is entertaining even though most of the jokes fall flat. It does contain a lot of racial stereotypes and epithets, but is good natured and pretty equal-opportunity in it's treatment of various ethnic groups making it at least honest in it's portrayal of life in Depression era U.S.A.

Modern audiences may find the use of caucasian actors in Chinese roles, and the dubbing of Lloyd when he speaks Chinese in 'The Cat's Paw' as much more blatantly obvious than did audiences of the time. And while it's not as groundbreaking as Lloyd's silent film work, and there are admittedly better films from the mid 30s, as mentioned, it's entertaining and fast moving, and worth checking out if for no other reason than to see Una Merkel as savvy cigarette girl Pet and to see Lloyd transition from sight gags to speaking.

As a Harold Lloyd fan, i agree with the other reviewer's comments, EXCEPT that I feel that "Movie Crazy" was his best sound film; "Cat's Paw" is a close second. (But, this is just MY opinion).

This film is a "hoot" from beginning to end and, in many scenes, George Barbier (the crook that gets him elected mayor) almost steals the show! (Especially at the end of the film).

One wishes that Una Merkel's character would be a bit more sympathetic to Harold, especially as the film progresses. Only in the last few minutes of the film do we find out her true feelings for him. (And, even then, there is no "romance" - kissing, etc).

This is a Must-See film!