The Gang Buster (1931)

by Ted Davis

Directed by: A. Edward Sutherland

Synopsis: In the type of role in which Bob Hope would later excel, Jack Oakie plays Charlie ‘Cyclone’ Chase, an eager beaver insurance salesman whose business skills are compromised regularly by his extremely superstitious nature. When Cyclone’s newfound love-interest Sylvia Martine (the matchless Jean Arthur) is kidnapped by hard-boiled gang leader ‘Sudden Mike’ Slade (William ‘Stage’ Boyd), he stumbles into action to rescue her (after all, they’ve got a date that evening) and inadvertently inflames a simmering gang war.

Purr Blur: Just after Cyclone is kicked out of Slade’s forbidding mansion to face the guns of the rival gang, a meowing black cat skitters across his path.

The Gang Buster - black cat running across path
The Gang Buster - black cat running across the path of Cyclone Jack Oakie

Final Mewsings: It’s a safe bet that superstitious leading men in movies will eventually run across a black cat.

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