Jour de paye

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.

"Pay Day" 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 then 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 persona, 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".

Chaplin's tramp has a job in this half hour short which comically depicts the plight of the era's laborer that has changed negligibly since. There is little plot to go around but plenty of perfected sight gags by the Silent master as he works and drinks with co-workers and fends off his shrewish rolling pin wielding wife who is intent on collecting his entire pay. The most deft comedy bits are on the job as he does amazing things with a lift as well as a scene grabbing bricks being tossed to him (albeit achieved by reversing the negative). The drinking with co-workers keeps the laughs going and continue through the final confrontation with the wife as Chaplin's uproarious balletic grace remains in fine form from start to finish.

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.

Altogether amazing little short with the comic at his best as a brick layer who is late on the job and presents a flower to his monstrous boss (MACK SWAIN). Swain looks so much like Billy Gilbert that I thought that's who it was at first. Swain orders him immediately to work and the fun starts.

A particularly amusing lunch hour sequence is full of sight gags requiring perfect timing. Charlie gets paid, then has to deal with an overbearing wife who sleeps with a rolling pin in her arms, ready to pounce on him when he doesn't come home from work on time. Instead, he's at the local pub having a night out with the other workers.

The pub sequence leads to other amusing sight gags as he and a fellow worker struggle to get out of the rain and onto a streetcar.

No wonder Chaplin considers this one his favorite silent short. Again, Edna Purviance has little to do but it hardly matters. It's Chaplin's limelight and that's all audiences wanted.

All of the stunts are exhibited in perfect timing and are the mark of genius.