Safety Last! (1923)

Directed by: Fred C. Newmeyer, Sam Taylor

This review contains a Kitty Carnage Warning!

Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains some spoilers for this film!

Synopsis: A small-town young man named Harold (Harold Lloyd) moves to the big city to make his fortune and through a series of misadventures ends up climbing up the side of a skyscraper.

Kitty Cameo: Harold takes a job in a department store and during an especially crazy sale his fabric counter is bombarded by women. One woman is off to the side holding her longhair white cat which is wearing a ribbon. Her henpecked husband stands beside her, holding her purchases.

Safety Last! - woman holding longhair white cat in department store with husband holding packages

Wanting to get in on the action, the woman sets the cat in her husband’s arms and hurries off.

Safety Last! - woman hanging longhair white cat in department store to husband holding packages

The cat immediately jumps down and runs away, much to the horror of the husband.

Safety Last! - longhair white cat jumping down from husband holding packages arms in department store

Safety Last! - woman handing longhair white cat in department store to husband holding packages animated gif

The reason for this quick gag soon follows as Harold accidentally knocks a white stole off the shoulders of a customer. We see the stole on the ground with the cat’s tail beside it.

Safety Last! - longhair white cat tail next to white stole on floor

Kitty Carnage Warning! Harold reaches for the stole and grabs the tail of the cat instead. In what is an extremely uncomfortable-to-watch gag, he picks the cat up by the tail and hands it to the woman. The woman also holds the cat by the tail, and eventually also the head, before realizing what she is holding and dropping the kitty to the floor.

Safety Last! - Harold Lloyd grabbing longhair white cat tail next to white stole on floor

Safety Last! - Harold Lloyd handing longhair white cat by the tail to female customer

Safety Last! - Harold Lloyd walking away from longhair white cat held by tail by female customer

Safety Last! - Harold Lloyd at counter with longhair white cat held by tail and head by female customer

Harold Lloyd seems to have used cats in his comedy more often than any of the other great silent clowns and this film is definitely a classic but in this instance the rough-handling of the poor cat actor makes this gag one the film could have lived without. The only saving grace is that the gag is extremely short so the cat’s discomfort is at least short-lived.