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7 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
Chaplin's best short comedy ever?, 25 July 2001
10/10
Author: Michael DeZubiria (miked32@hotmail.com) from Luoyang, China

Pay Day is definitely one of the best of all of Charlie Chaplin's early short comedies, and that's not even just because it is now placed at the end of The Gold Rush, Chaplin's own favorite of his films. Charlie plays a construction worker who shows up to work late to a job at which his boss is clearly a tyrant. The part where Charlie is in the ditch strenuously digging and only coming up with tiny bits of dirt is one of the funniest parts of the entire film. And then, of course, you have the classic brick throwing scene, which was sure to have knocked people off of their seats when they first saw it in 1922.

But Pay Day is not just another slapstick comedy, it's also got one of the better stories of Chaplin's early, short films. His misadventures at work set up the scene for his underpayment (which seemed not to be enough pay because Charlie was uneducated and added wrong – 2+2+2+2=9), and his eventual confrontations with his beast of a wife. When she takes nearly all of his paycheck, he sneaks away to a bar to get drunk, finally making it home at 5am, only to find his horrendous wife sleeping with a rolling pin. It is another classic moment when he sneaks into the bathroom (hoping to have convinced his wife that he has already left for work) and goes to jump into the bathtub full of laundry, only to find that it is also full of water.

While Pay Day does present a steady stream of slapstick comedy (which was, of course, one of Chaplin's greatest skills), it is also a fairly involved story, which few of his short films had, but which were almost always very well done. He again presents the predicament of the working man, both in his work environment as well as an amusing comment on the working man's home life. If you are interested in Chaplin's work or in slapstick comedy in general, Pay Day is a must see.

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3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Chaplin's best short, 16 September 2005
Author: JoeytheBrit from www.moviemoviesite.com

This was the last of Chaplin's shorts and, for the first half at least, it bids fair to be his best. The first ten minutes are simply a succession of side-splitting set-pieces that show the comedian at his most inventive. Only Chaplin could make digging a hole funny. The sequence with the workmen's lift on the building site at which Chaplin works – he abandons the tramp persona while retaining the baggy outfit – is a master-class in split second comic timing, and the brick-throwing spectacle is a truly astonishing piece of work that requires repeated viewings – it's not so much the manner in which it's filmed but the seamless fashion in which the trickery is performed that amazes the first-time viewer even today.

The quality drops a little in the second half, which is hardly surprising given the near-perfection of the first reel, but Chaplin still manages to provide a number of laugh-out-loud moments. Playing a drunk might seem a cheap way of getting a laugh, but nobody could ever play a drunk as adroitly as Chaplin.

Watch and savour every moment of this classic.

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3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Gloaming Shades, 29 August 2005
Author: Cineanalyst

This was Charlie Chaplin's last short film, and I think it's one of his best--not especially for the gags or scenario, but mostly because of its technical superiority in film-making. I consider the scenario substandard; I prefer Charlie as a real tramp, not a man of domesticity in the tramp outfit, but that's just my preference. Doubtless, 'Pay Day' is better constructed than 'A Day's Pleasure,' another First National short where Chaplin plays a married everyman. And, there are some very funny scenes in 'Pay Day.' The bricklaying at his construction job is a highlight--a carefully choreographed gag projected in reverse motion. Additionally, Chaplin is hilarious when playing a drunk.

The night scenes when the tramp becomes inebriated and his subsequent follies at his apartment are better photographed than any scenes in a Chaplin film before. Chaplin is well known to be a rather minimalist, even unimaginative, filmmaker when it came to the more technical aspects of the art, such as cinematography, but he and cinematographer Roland Totheroh tried something different here with the lighting. Their films usually feature very flat lighting, but here they employed backlighting, adding another dimension to the film's images. When Chaplin tiptoes towards the camera oblivious of his wife standing behind him in their apartment, he seems ready to fall off the screen.

The night scenes are particularly striking; the backlighting more fully exposes shadows and the shades of gray, highlighting the textures of the sets and streets. The scene where the tramp attempts to get a ride on the trolleys was broken into location shots for the trolleys and studio shooting for when Chaplin is in front of the walled background. Chaplin was by now organizing his films for more efficient production, and the result is this great-looking short.

Art director Charles D. Hall, who would have a prestigious career designing sets for various horror flicks, helped greatly to expand Chaplin's films spatially at First National, which included simply featuring more sets and covering a greater area. Of course, the difference between the First National films and his ones before has as much to do with having his own studio, but Hall's contribution shouldn't be ignored. Even though the sets are still stagy (the missing wall confounded by a lack of changing camera placements), the backlighting highlights their texture and dimensions. 'Pay Day' is Chaplin's most tactile short. The Mutual films were a period of refining Chaplin's tramp personae, as were some of the First National pictures, but these First National films were also a period of experimenting with his film-making--in ways as simple as the number of reels to the technical experiments such as in 'Pay Day.'

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3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
A Short Comedy With Lots of Variety, 6 August 2001
Author: Snow Leopard from Ohio

This Chaplin short has a lot of variety and some great moments. The first half is especially good, with some very good material featuring Charlie working at a construction site. There is a part with Charlie laying bricks that you will want to see if you are a Chaplin fan - it must have taken a lot of care and planning to film. The film also gets a lot of mileage out of the service elevator that the crew is using. The second part of the movie is not really as good as the first, mostly in that it relies too much on drunkenness for comic effect, but it also has some good gags. The best moments of this part are with Charlie and his imposing wife.

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
extremely well choreographed stunts and interesting throughout, 3 May 2006
8/10
Author: planktonrules from Bradenton, Florida

This film has some highly imaginative and well-timed stunts--all revolving around Charlie's job at a construction site. All the near-falls and accidents remind me of Sweet Pea from POPEYE cartoons--as the baby is nearly killed again and again but miraculously escapes. In Chaplin's case, it involved a funny sequence when he ALMOST falls down an elevator many times, dropping objects accidentally on those below and a really interesting sight gag involving guys throwing bricks up to Charlie who catches this with complete ease (it was done by running the film backwards). Later, Charlie's hideous and scary wife is introduced and it goes from a work comedy to a domestic one. In a way, this was a minor disappointment, as I preferred the faster paced work stunts, but all-in-all this is a funny and well executed short.

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Chaplin leaves the short era with one of his funniest movies ever, 27 June 2005
9/10
Author: snorrem (agust195@hotmail.com) from Norway

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Charlie, forever the little fellow, is obliged to work hard. He's hired as a builder with a rigorous man as his boss (brilliantly played by Keystone veteran Mack Swain). Surely, this was far from the only time Chaplin used this as the ground plot, but that had nothing to do with lack of originality but rather because the results turned hilarious every time.

After a hard day, Charlie receives his well deserved pay and goes out to the standard night club to get drunk, one of the few things he ever succeeds in. In such circumstances he can hardly go home on foot, and decides to take the street-car. But when the street-car arrives he looks another way and it drives away right behind him.

After two other similar incidents, he is, against his will, obliged to go home on foot. When he finally is ready for bed, a clock begins to ring, which wakes up his wife -- this is one of the very few times The Tramp is married. He is still in clothes, and behaves as if he is ready to go to work. He creeps into the bathroom and comes to the conclusion that the tub in the bathroom isn't that bad to sleep in after all. He is quickly discovered, of course, and thrown out of the apartment.

PAY DAY is extremely funny, one of Chaplin's very best short subjects, filled with several very clever gags. Besides this, the film is also interesting to see by historical reasons. PAY DAY was Chaplin's final short. After eight years he went constantly over to features. That had to happen sooner or later, of course -- but PAY DAY proves that he could have continued to do shorts many years forward and still got excellent results.

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Charlie Chaplin's short films, 20 June 2005
7/10
Author: Lee Eisenberg (eisenberg.lee@gmail.com) from Portland, Oregon, USA

"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.

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
...I actually like the drunk scenes, 19 March 2004
9/10
Author: pichlerj from Minneapolis, MN

When the group of fellas (not unlike my buddies) stroll out of the bar and start singing, I nearly p**sed myself when the lady dumped water on them. They were so drunk they thought it was raining and broke out the umbrella...

Anyway, for anyone whose got drinkin' buddies, this is a must see. The brick laying is pretty good, an early use of playing the film backwards to create spectacular effects. Great thinking for the time this was filmed and I wonder if this was the first use of this technique.

I wasn't too clear on what Charlie was up to when he reached in his pocket, lifted his leg, and then did the reach around...turns out to be a hilarious lighting of a match that just floored me.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Amazing, 5 March 2006
Author: Mehmet Mutlu Ozdemir from Turkiye

This is an amazing film of Chaplin. Indeed Chaplin is supposed to do every incredible work. Chaplin's tramp is usually a waiter in a restaurant, so there is much for a waiter to do as a gag in slapstick. We can see Charlot as a violin artist, a film artist, a new janitor, a stage staff, a singer (as in modern times), a barber (in the great dictator), a broken king (a king in New York), a gold seeker (gold rush of course), a waiter (in many shorts, also modern times), a factory worker etc. In this film Chaplin is a very qualified brick workman, the gags are incredible. Chaplins performance is unbelievable (do not mention this, I can believe everything amazing I heard about Chaplin). Meanwhile Chaplin is not the usual penniless tramp in this film. He works hard, he again does everything (even cruel)to take a job for a loaf of bread, but earns money, very talented in the job, however gets less money than he has to. He does not now to calculate, and of course is a henpecked. His wife Phyllis Allen (was 60 while shotting the film) is a nightmare for him, so bathtub is a wet but comfortable bed for him. This time Chaplin works with the oppression of his wife. I think this is one of the several best silents of Chaplin. It was also very clearly printed and was a great joy to watch it. Chaplin's keystones do not make me laugh, but in his newer films (like this) his genius smiles at us.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Just for Laughs, 23 September 2004
Author: (caspian1978@hotmail.com) from Attleboro, MA

Said to be Chaplin's favorite of his short films, Pay Day is a quick, yet funny story of the Tramp and his Pay Day. Showing up to the job late, complaining about his wage, and then having to deal with his scary wife is just the first half of the movie. The night spent out on the town, drinking his problems away and then trying ever so hard to catch the train home is the second half. The physical comedy in Pay day is pure Chaplin. Catching the bricks, the escapades with the elevator and the mob to ride the train are segments that are unique and very funny. Still, Pay Day is not you average Chaplin film. There are moments in the movie that are just there to make you laugh. More of a joke filled story that an actual story with a beginning, middle and an end, Pay Day is a no holds bar comedy with the object to make the audience laugh. And it does.

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