Hollywood was beginning to take notice of the corruption in politics during the mid-1930s. Headlines were filled with politicians on the take and scripts were churned out to reflect the public's dissatisfaction on the pols running their governments. Comic director Harold Lloyd gleaned from this rising movement of cinema's political corruption motifs by releasing his July 1934 "The Cat's-Paw."
After his 1932 film "Movie Crazy," Lloyd spent months researching for his next comedy. He came upon a serialized Saturday Evening Post story by Clarence Budington Kelland in August 1933 about a missionary from China who returned to the states in search of a wife, only to find he's running for a big-city mayoral position. Ezekiel Cobb (Lloyd) gets elected and soon discovers City Hall is as corrupt as all get-out. He's determined to clean up the city by devising a plan with his Chinese friends that makes alleged strong-arm tactics in law enforcement seem like playing patty-cake in comparison. Author Kelland also wrote a 1935 short story 'Opera Hat' that provided the structure for Capra's 1936 "Mr. Deeds Goes To Town."
Lloyd's team of gag writers adapted Kelland's story into a script filled with the usual comic's pratfalls. Their script was so off-base that it resemble nothing remotely to Lloyd's intentions. Harold and his director Sam Taylor shaped the script to closely follow Kelland's story and red-lined the usual Lloydish physical comedy.
Film reviewer Dan Stumpf was fascinated by the Lloyd's abrupt turn towards social commentary. "This is an unusual - eschewing the star's trademark inventive slapstick for a more thoughtful - and less funny approach," Stumpf offered. "And while it's not entirely successful, it's fascinating to watch and wonder what else Lloyd might have done had he opted for Social Commentary instead of settling for being the Talkies' best Physical Comedian."
The movie's title "The Cat's-Paw" refers to a person in power who becomes a puppet to the corrupt political machine This was Taylor's seventh and final film directing Lloyd. Taylor, a former scriptwriter for producer Hal Roach, turned to directing in 1919, but after "The Cat's-Paw" he went back to writing. For Lloyd, the usually-active actor didn't make another movie for the next two years when he produced 1936's "The Milky Way."
After his 1932 film "Movie Crazy," Lloyd spent months researching for his next comedy. He came upon a serialized Saturday Evening Post story by Clarence Budington Kelland in August 1933 about a missionary from China who returned to the states in search of a wife, only to find he's running for a big-city mayoral position. Ezekiel Cobb (Lloyd) gets elected and soon discovers City Hall is as corrupt as all get-out. He's determined to clean up the city by devising a plan with his Chinese friends that makes alleged strong-arm tactics in law enforcement seem like playing patty-cake in comparison. Author Kelland also wrote a 1935 short story 'Opera Hat' that provided the structure for Capra's 1936 "Mr. Deeds Goes To Town."
Lloyd's team of gag writers adapted Kelland's story into a script filled with the usual comic's pratfalls. Their script was so off-base that it resemble nothing remotely to Lloyd's intentions. Harold and his director Sam Taylor shaped the script to closely follow Kelland's story and red-lined the usual Lloydish physical comedy.
Film reviewer Dan Stumpf was fascinated by the Lloyd's abrupt turn towards social commentary. "This is an unusual - eschewing the star's trademark inventive slapstick for a more thoughtful - and less funny approach," Stumpf offered. "And while it's not entirely successful, it's fascinating to watch and wonder what else Lloyd might have done had he opted for Social Commentary instead of settling for being the Talkies' best Physical Comedian."
The movie's title "The Cat's-Paw" refers to a person in power who becomes a puppet to the corrupt political machine This was Taylor's seventh and final film directing Lloyd. Taylor, a former scriptwriter for producer Hal Roach, turned to directing in 1919, but after "The Cat's-Paw" he went back to writing. For Lloyd, the usually-active actor didn't make another movie for the next two years when he produced 1936's "The Milky Way."