Given that this was Chaplin's last ever movie short, he couldn't have ended this stage of his career on better from, as this movie is a triumph in every way and is widely regarded as one of Chaplin's best, (a view shared by Chaplin himself who, in his twilight years, named Pay Day as the favourite of all his short films made between 1914 and 1922.
I find that when reviewing shorts such as this,it's most important that you don't rattle on longer than the movie itself, so I'll make this as brief as I can.
Chaplin plays a labourer on a building sight who after an hilarious day on the job, gets paid , gives his rolling pin wielding wife the slip and goes for a night on the town.
Sweet Edna Purviance plays the foreman's daughter and gives another one of her adorable performances, but it's such a shame that she's not given more to do.
I cannot end the review without mention to the brilliant, yet simple, brick throwing scene, where it appears that the workers on the ground are chucking bricks up to Charlie on the scaffold, where he is gracefully catching them and stocking them for use. We all know that the film is being run backwards, but in 1922, this scene must have had the convulsed audience throwing their pop corn all over the theatre such was it's originality, as that was my very reaction when I first saw the sequence.
My other favourite moment is just after Charlie and his drinking buddies leave the saloon, (or speakeasy as it must have been, as the movie was actually made during prohibition). When putting on his overcoat, Charlie puts his right arm in his own coat, put manages to find his left arm in the right arm sleeve of the coat belonging to the gentleman standing behind him and proceeds to get dragged down the street while the other man remains completely ignorant of his new Charlie papoose.
I have seen about 40 of all the 50 Chaplin shorts made, and can say with confidence that with the exception of perhaps 'One AM'(1916) and 'Shoulder Arms' (1918), none of them even come close to Pay Day.
Enjoy!
I find that when reviewing shorts such as this,it's most important that you don't rattle on longer than the movie itself, so I'll make this as brief as I can.
Chaplin plays a labourer on a building sight who after an hilarious day on the job, gets paid , gives his rolling pin wielding wife the slip and goes for a night on the town.
Sweet Edna Purviance plays the foreman's daughter and gives another one of her adorable performances, but it's such a shame that she's not given more to do.
I cannot end the review without mention to the brilliant, yet simple, brick throwing scene, where it appears that the workers on the ground are chucking bricks up to Charlie on the scaffold, where he is gracefully catching them and stocking them for use. We all know that the film is being run backwards, but in 1922, this scene must have had the convulsed audience throwing their pop corn all over the theatre such was it's originality, as that was my very reaction when I first saw the sequence.
My other favourite moment is just after Charlie and his drinking buddies leave the saloon, (or speakeasy as it must have been, as the movie was actually made during prohibition). When putting on his overcoat, Charlie puts his right arm in his own coat, put manages to find his left arm in the right arm sleeve of the coat belonging to the gentleman standing behind him and proceeds to get dragged down the street while the other man remains completely ignorant of his new Charlie papoose.
I have seen about 40 of all the 50 Chaplin shorts made, and can say with confidence that with the exception of perhaps 'One AM'(1916) and 'Shoulder Arms' (1918), none of them even come close to Pay Day.
Enjoy!