if one be to return to the dawn of the talk picture and one would prophesy a bright future for harold lloyd . unlike his competitor and he be comedic actor train on the legitimate stage not a perform raise in the purgatory of the music hall or vaudeville circuit . he have a good voice which match his image . moreover and from 1924 on and his silent film have incorporate sequence base on sound gag lose on the audience ( e. g. and the bell sequence at the fall frolic from the freshman and the monkey sequence in the kid brother ) . yet lloyd sound feature consistently fail at the box office once the novelty of welcome danger have ebb . lloyd blame his fall on many external source and but never realize that the glass character enemy be not sound but the great depression . pre depression audience and giddy with optimism and may have root for this ambitious go getter in whom they saw their surrogate while depression audience despise him a the person likely to foreclose on their mortgage and throw them in the gutter . compound this problem of character choice be lloyd perception a an insincere glad hander . sincerity and of course and be a subjective appraisal and but it be undeniable that lloyd and despite his own tragic upbringing and could never play a convince down and outer . perhaps this be because he fear return to that state permanently . the cat paw fails for these reason and but it alone suffer from the revelation of lloyd pro fascist agenda . many film scholar believe that lloyd be prompt to make this film because he saw the presidency of fdr a a dictatorship bent on soak the rich and soft on crime . we should remember that he be not alone in this feeling . demille have direct this day and age and a pro police state drama and the previous year . we should also remember that america be found by hotheaded tax protester and continue to be motivate by those who want something without pay for it . tcp suffered because it treat fascism lightly in a comedy and because it release be particularly ill time give the event in germany in that year . the production code of 1934 would ultimately curtail the glorification of vigilante justice and reaffirm the rule of constitutional law and cumbersome a it might be . the ideal of the benevolent despot and the good intentioned all powerful leader who bring about a utopia once free of the check and balance on this omnipotence and date to classical antiquity . for this reason and totalitarian regime fear laughter even though it act a a safety valve . ironically and the mere existence of tcp and a film which demonize the democratic experience of the country of it origin and show that fdr america be secure enough to accept criticism . one see no parallel criticism in hitler germany and stalin ussr and or mussolini italy . but can one laugh at the gallows humor of pending fascism . lloyd unnuanced film be skew to the right and might have be write by dr goebbels himself if he would have a sense of humor and of course . it posit an alternative history in which a chosen one restore order and lose honor by any mean necessary and and do so with good nature and fun . impend fascism approach by the left be and of course and chaplin the great dictator . this latter film have the benefit of be set in another country and base on a thinly veil actual persona and event . the great dictator produce few laugh today because it under estimate the extent of human evil and but it succeed despite it artless and inappropriate speechifying and because it have the distinct advantage of be vindicate by history . lloyd and however and should be credit for two thing represent first and he neither make any further pro fascist film nor produce any subsequently hypocritically pro allied film during the war represent second and he never sell tcp to television . the post 1945 world have see the face of fascism and it wasn not amusing .