Pay Day (1922)

Why so much hype?

Great Film overall

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

This may be the short film from Charlie Chaplin, in which he plays the most tragic character of his career. At work, he's hungry and needs to steal his co-worker's lunch. He's married to a considerably older, not even remotely attractive gold-digger wife, who's a pest to poor old Charlie. And finally, when he receives the paycheck, which is as low always, and tries to hide it, the wife takes it away immediately. No surprise the little man goes to the bar at night to drink away his sorrows. When he decides to get home, all the trains are packed and Charlie repeatedly attempts to hop on one, but here he comes as short as everywhere else. So after a long walk through the rain, he finally reaches the dragon's cave and as the alarm clock rings, the dragon makes sure in resolute fashion that Charlie (without food and sleep) gets to work early in the morning again.I feel most Chaplin short films haven't aged too well, but this one is an exception, mainly thanks to Phyllis Allen, whose characters interactions with Chaplin are a joy to watch. The scenes with the two are easily the highlight, i.e. the return from work and the scenes right at the end. She's truly sinister and I wouldn't have minded if she had starred in a couple more Chaplin films. The construction work scenes early on were okay. The pub scenes were the weakest part of the film, although the butcher wagon was kinda funny. I believe this is one of the better Chaplin short films and a good start to get in the legendary silent actor's body of work.

For me, this, Chaplin's final short, is also his finest. It has a good 'vibe' & everyone seems 'in the groove' from the word go. It also has excellent picture quality & even the best music score (composed by the man himself). Much has been made in previous reviews of the 2nd half (Chaplin 'on the town') failing to match the standard of the 1st (at work). True, the humour is different, but then it features Charlie relaxing after a day's work, &, in fact, provides a nice contrast to the hectic activity of earlier. And there are many funny moments contained therein - the two men putting on their coats haphazardly, Charlie missing the first two trolley-cars, then clambering desperately over the queue to ensure he is first on the next one, only to get squeezed out the other end (predictably, I suppose, but brilliantly done), mistaking the pie-stall for another trolley-car, trying to pretend to his wife he's up & ready for work when, in fact, he has just arrived home, etc. Just a mention for 'heavy' Mack Swain: I think he's more effective (if almost unrecognisable) as the mean, unsmiling foreman - without the moustache & eye make-up - than when he hams it up (as in 'The Movie Star', for example), though he's good in that, too.

"Pay Day" was Charlie Chaplin's last short film, and a funny one at that. He plays a bricklayer who comes to work late one day and proceeds to work inefficiently, incurring the wrath of his monstrous foreman (Mack Swain). After the foreman underpays the bricklayer, he incorrectly adds up his overtime, and the foreman believes that he has been overpaid.So, the bricklayer and his friends go to a bar and get drunk. After the bricklayer misses every streetcar, he arrives home at 5 am, finding that his wife is not one bit happy about it.As always, Chaplin knew how to make a great movie.

This is an excellent testament to Chaplin's comedic genius. By 1921, he was coming into his own as the best filmmaker of the time, but full-length features were still a thing of the future. Because he only felt the need to make a 28 minute film, which left out a solid plot, and love interest. In this case, that's a good thing, because it leaves just a bunch of solid, extremely funny, comic situation. The music in Pay Day is excellent. Some scenes to note are Chaplin catching, and piling up the bricks, trying to catch the trolley, and trying to dig his hole...