486 - Harold Lloyd in The Cat's Paw, United States, 1934. Dir. Sam Taylor.

Tuesday, May 1, 2018

486 - Harold Lloyd in The Cat's Paw, United States, 1934.  Dir. Sam Taylor.

Harold talks!

Holy Cats.

Mr. Cobb Goes to Stockport.

Ezekiel Cobb, that is.  Born in Stockport.  But moved to China as a little boy.  Moved with his beloved father, a missionary, and raised on the writings of Ling Po.

There is a real Chinese poet named Li Po, but this is a fictional poet.

Twenty years later, Ezekiel goes home to find a wife.  A wife back in Stockport to bring back to China.  But because he has lived his entire remembered life in China, he feels out of place in his own hometown.  And because he is played by Harold Lloyd, he is innocent and vulnerable.

So just as Mr. Jefferson Smith--as played by James Stewart in Frank Capra's film five years later--is put up as U.S. Senator to be a patsy for the crime boss Jim Taylor--played by Edward Arnold--under the mentorship of the shady senior senator Joseph Paine--played by Claude Rains--so also Ezekiel Cobb--as played by Harold Lloyd--is put up as the Stockport mayor to be a patsy, or Cat's Paw, for the crime boss Jake Mayo--played by George Barbier.

But what Jake Mayo does not anticipate from Ezekiel Cobb, just as Jim Taylor did not expect it from Jefferson Smith, is that Ezekiel Cobb will take his job seriously and take real action to bring about real reform.

Ezekiel Cobb leans on the writings of Ling Po to guide him in his decision making.

As Cobb attempts to date, in order to find a wife, his naivete generates humorous misadventures with the ladies.  And in particular, with Miss Pet Pratt, as played by Una Merkel.

And as Cobb attempts to clean up the town, his naivete, or simplistic genius, upsets the standard order until things come to a breaking point.

It just so happens that Ezekiel Cobb knows just what to do.

And does it.

And wins.

In a decade where innocent men won against corruption.

And won the girl.

And won the hearts of Americans.