Die Bank

"The Bank" (1915, Chaplin) "The Bank" was one of Charlie's 1915 Essanay films. While these group of films are more watchable than their 1914 counterparts, this one seems a bit below average. The gag with the janitorial double combo-locked vault and the tough-luck ending that has Charlie waking up from a dream, in which he is stroking the lead lady's hair, only to be stroking the head of a mop he had used as a quasi pillow, are both classic Chaplin moments. They are both ironically the beginning and the end. The middle is filled in with fighting with the rival co-worker janitor and busting up a bank robbery to win the girl. The mop is probably the greatest physical prop of this movie and Charlie uses it to expert comedic effect whether while it is the intention of his character or not. The mop seems to be Charlie's alter-ego doing things he wishes he could do but wouldn't with his own two hands. Interesting stuff but there's better.

Am a big fan of Charlie Chaplin, have been for over a decade now. Many films and shorts of his are very good to masterpiece, and like many others consider him a comedy genius and one of film's most important and influential directors.

From his Essanay period after leaving Keystone, 'The Bank is not one of his very best but is one of his best early efforts and among the better short films of his. It shows a noticeable step up in quality though from his Keystone period, where he was still evolving and in the infancy of his long career, from 1914, The Essanay period is something of Chaplin's adolescence period where his style had been found and starting to settle. Something that can be seen in the more than worthwhile 'The Bank'.

The story is still a little flimsy, there are times where it struggles to sustain the short length, and could have had more variety.

On the other hand, 'The Bank' looks pretty good, not incredible but it was obvious that Chaplin was taking more time with his work and not churning out countless shorts in the same year of very variable success like he did with Keystone. Appreciate the importance of his Keystone period and there is some good stuff he did there, but the more mature and careful quality seen here and later on is obvious.

While not one of his most hilarious or touching, 'The Bank' is still very funny with some clever, entertaining and well-timed slapstick and is one of his first to have substance and pathos. It moves quickly and there is no dullness in sight.

Chaplin directs more than competently, if not quite cinematic genius standard yet. He also, as usual, gives an amusing and expressive performance and at clear ease with the physicality and substance of the role. The supporting cast acquit themselves well.

In summary, very good and one of the best from Chaplin's Essanay period. 8/10 Bethany Cox

The story is the same as most of the action movies a hundred years later.

Charlie Chaplin made a preview to Die Hard without words and more comedy.

Quiet interesting and funny.

Chaplin's comic persona still wasn't fully formed when he made this 1915 short for Essanay, but his development was gathering pace and, while there are still dislikeable elements about his character he is not as mean-spirited as he was in his earlier incarnations. Here he plays Charlie the janitor, a lowly worker at a bank who mistakenly believes the pretty teller (played by Edna Purviance) loves him, when she really loves a dapper bank clerk by the same name.

Chaplin's comic timing is perfect as always and he makes difficult tricks look easy as he wages war on a fellow worker. Oddly, while the film works a little too hard to tug at the audience's heartstrings, there is no happy ending to this one, and by the final credits the true colours of both Charlie and his love rival are exposed.

The genius of Charlie Chaplin lay in the fact that he didn't just do comedy. As he honed his craft, his stories became an intricate balance between pure comedy, action and poignancy. And yet he wove his comic style into the latter two, so they flowed seamlessly into the grand plan.

The Bank begins, sensibly, with the out-and-out comedy. Like many of the shorts he made at Essanay, this involves Charlie's little tramp character causing mayhem in a once-orderly environment. His role here as a janitor in a bank is ideal for this pattern. While most of the time our eyes will be on the tramp and his antics, Chaplin actually often draws our attention to the trail of destruction he leaves behind him, resulting in maximum laughs. For example, in one shot the tramp messes up the workstation of a couple of suited employees, and while he saunters casually into the background, we are left with the two clerks fuming in the foreground. In the shot where Charlie inadvertently puts his mop in a clerk's hat, he draws our eyes towards the point where the gag is about to take place by having that clerk move around more and putting a white space around him. The arrangement looks random but this is a genuine technique that works upon audiences.

Gradually, a plot begins to crystallize out of all this silliness. This is where the emotional angle comes in. Unusually for him, Chaplin uses a lot of close-ups, putting the slapstick on hold for a bit, and highlighting the expressions of his characters. He demonstrates his considerable acting talent, showing how his complete control over his body could be turned to giving a deep and moving performance. He lets the moment run long enough for the audience to appreciate, but prevents it from overbalancing the whole picture by punctuating it with a couple of gags as Charlie takes out his suffering on his rival janitor.

The action finale of the Bank is probably the most elaborate and precise of its kind that Chaplin had constructed so far. It works both as part of the comedy and as an exciting moment in its own right. It has the frenetic pace of a good action sequence, but it is also effectively a series of gags, as characters are knocked down into roly-poly pratfalls, or Charlie's fight with a robber spins into a dance. The whole thing is impeccably staged and timed.

This might be a good time to mention a few of the supporting players from the Bank. Billy Armstrong plays the second janitor, with whom Charlie evidently has an inexplicable (yet very funny) feud. There was usually a character like this in Chaplin's Essanay pictures, and on several memorable occasions it was Armstrong. With his gangly form and spectacular pratfalling, he was ideal. This was also the first time Chaplin worked with John Rand, here playing the top-hatted chief bank robber. He had a kind of preposterous look to him, but was versatile enough to fulfil a variety of roles in Chaplin's pictures over the next twenty years.

The Bank is Chaplin's first truly perfect feature, and due to its excellence should be seen by absolutely everyone.

Last but not least, the all-important statistic – Number of kicks up the arse: 4 (2 for, 1 against, 1 other)