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''The Sin of Harold Diddlebock'' is a 1947 comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges, starring the silent film comic icon Harold Lloyd, and featuring Jimmy Conlin, Raymond Walburn, Rudy Vallee, Arline Judge, Edgar Kennedy, Franklin Pangborn and Lionel Stander. The film's story is a continuation of ''The Freshman'', one of Lloyd's most successful movies. ''The Sin of Harold Diddlebock'' was Sturges' first project after leaving Paramount Pictures, where he had made his best and most popular films, but the film was not successful in its initial release. It was quickly pulled from distribution by producer Howard Hughes who took almost four years to re-shoot some scenes and re-edit the film,〔 finally re-releasing it in 1950 as ''Mad Wednesday'' – but the reception by the general public was no better the second time around. A few critics consider this film a masterpiece of comedy. Lloyd was never to star in another film, turning instead to production, and releasing compilation films featuring his earlier silent film work. ==Plot== In 1945, twenty-three years after scoring the winning touchdown for his Tate College football team (as told in ''The Freshman''), mild-mannered Harold Diddlebock (Harold Lloyd), who has been stuck in a dull, dead-end book-keeping job for years, is let go by his pompous boss, advertising tycoon J.E. Waggleberry (Raymond Walburn). He is given an 18 karat Swiss watch that is 'properly inscribed "with gratitude and love and kisses for 20 years devoted services"' and a check for $2,946.12, the remains of his company investment plan. He bids farewell to Miss Otis (Frances Ramsden), who works at an artist's desk down the aisle, giving her the paid for engagement ring that he had, having planned to marry each of her six older sisters (Hortense, Irma, Harriet, Margie, Claire, and Rosemary) when they had worked there before her. He wanders out, aimlessly through the streets, his life's savings in his pants pocket. While looking through the newspaper want ads for another job, Harold is approached by Wormy (Jimmy Conlin), a local con artist, petty gambler, and racetrack lout, who asks Harold for some money so he can place a bet. Seeing the large amount of cash that Harold has, and hoping to get him drunk enough to acquire some of the cash, Wormy takes the depressed and unemployed Harold downstairs to the local bar for a drink. When Harold tells the bartender, Jake (Edgar Kennedy), that he has never had a drink in his life, the barkeep creates a potent cocktail he calls "The Diddlebock", one sip of which is enough to release Harold from all his inhibitions, setting him off on a day-and-a-half binge of spending, gambling, and carousing. A day or two later, Harold wakes up on the sofa inside the house of his widowed sister Flora (Margaret Hamilton). He finds that he has a hangover, but he also has a garish new wardrobe, a ten-gallon cowboy hat, a horse-drawn hansom cab complete with driver, and ownership of a bankrupt circus. Trying to sell the circus, Harold and Wormy visit circus-loving Wall Street banker Lynn Sargent (Rudy Vallee). When he turns them down, the rest of the town's bankers follow suit. To get past the bank guards, Harold brings along Jackie the Lion, who incites panic. Carrying a filled Thermos, Wormy gives shot drinks of the potent "Diddlebock" cocktail to each of the bankers they visit so their inhibitions will fade and convince them to put in bids for ownership of the circus. Things take a turn for the worse when the lion gets loose, in which Harold, Wormy, and the lion end up on the ledge of a skyscraper, but narrowly avoid plunging to certain death. According to Harold's plan, the three (Harold, Wormy, and Jackie the Lion) are arrested and thrown in jail. Miss Otis bails them out, and they find that the publicity has attracted a mob of bankers who want to buy the circus – but Ringling Brothers outbids them. Harold celebrates with another "Diddlebock", and again has another relapse. In the final scene, Harold wakes up another day or two later in the horse-drawn cab with Miss Otis where he learns that he received $175,000.00 for the circus, he is now an executive at Waggleberry's advertising agency, and that he and Miss Otis are married.〔Erickson, Hal ("The Sin of Harold Diddlebock" (Allmovie) )〕〔TCM (Full synopsis )〕〔Li, Kathy (Plot summary (IMDB) )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Sin of Harold Diddlebock」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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