Plot
In "The Baby Cyclone," the title refers not to a child, but to a mischievous little Pekingese dog whose presence wreaks havoc on relationships, homes, and tempers. The story begins when Joe Meadows (played by Lew Cody), a smooth-talking office worker, gives away the dog to Jessie Hurley (played by Gwen Lee), a woman he meets through a neighboring office window. Jessie instantly falls in love with the dog and brings it home to her husband, Gene Hurley (played by Robert Armstrong), as a surprise. Gene, however, is horrified by the yapping little creature and cannot believe Jessie considers the shaggy menace a household pet.
Jessie, completely besotted with the dog she names Cyclone, treats it like a baby, even blaming Gene for letting the dog catch a cold. Gene, desperate to rid himself of the four-legged pest, attempts several ridiculous methods of disposal. His efforts include dropping the dog down a manhole, hoping for a quick solution, but a friendly laborer, Bill (played by Wade Boteler), retrieves Cyclone and returns him. In another attempt, Gene tries to leave Cyclone near a tough bulldog outside a restaurant, but even the bulldog flees at the sight of the obnoxious Pekingese.
Eventually, Gene meets Lydia Webster (played by Aileen Pringle) in the park, a fashionable and elegant woman who instantly falls for Cyclone’s supposed charms. He seizes the chance to be rid of the dog and sells him to her for five dollars. Lydia proudly takes Cyclone home and begins treating him like a prized possession. When her fiancé, Joe Meadows, arrives and sees the dog again, he is immediately dismayed. Joe attempts to bathe Cyclone to improve his standing with Lydia, but this results in complete domestic chaos. Slipping on soap, falling into the coal pile, and springing a rat trap, Joe’s attempt ends in disaster. Lydia accuses him of cruelty, insists that he has no sensitivity, and bars him from touching the dog again.
Meanwhile, Jessie discovers that Cyclone is gone and demands that Gene get him back or their marriage is over. Gene, flustered, confesses that he sold the dog to a woman from Chicago and has no way of tracking her down. Their argument escalates into a public shouting match in the street. As fate would have it, Jessie spots Lydia passing by—with Cyclone in her arms. Jessie immediately confronts her, emotionally overwhelmed by the reunion. In a flurry of emotion and bills, Jessie repurchases Cyclone, leaving Lydia stunned and Joe once again embarrassed and battered.
When Lydia discovers the dog is gone, she demands that Joe recover him at any cost. Joe tries to explain that he doesn’t even know where the woman lives, but Lydia insists, accusing him of indifference and betrayal. Though their quarrel is loud and theatrical, it ends in reconciliation as they embrace, with the matter of the dog left unresolved.
The story also features Mrs. Crandall (played by Nora Cecil), a proper and fussy older woman who adds to the social friction in Lydia’s world, as well as Lydia’s parents, Mr. Webster (played by Fred Esmelton) and Mrs. Webster (played by Clarissa Selwynne), who appear in scenes highlighting Lydia’s upper-class domestic setting and genteel pretensions.
The film ends on a comic note, with Cyclone once again back in Jessie’s arms, the object of obsessive affection and the cause of utter chaos. The men, though exhausted and humiliated, are powerless to challenge the dog’s hold over their wives. Cyclone, ever the center of unwanted attention, lives up to his name, leaving confusion, conflict, and comedic destruction wherever he goes. [5] [6] [7]
