Watch Pay Day For Free

Best movie ever!

Awesome Movie

The first must-see film of the year.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

In a brand-new upload at YouTube, this is a must-see, especially for Chaplin fans -- and surely everyone is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDxNsaain5gStrangely, I had never seen this before, and it is very gratifying to find a Chaplin movie that is "new" to me.One reviewer said "Pay Day" was Chaplin's favorite, among his shorts, and I think he had many better, but this is often astonishingly creative fun.The story is not even slight. It's almost non-existent: Mostly a series of vignettes -- but very funny vignettes.It really doesn't end, just stops. Still, it's Chaplin, and funny, so do see it, and I hope you see it with the Lasky Famous Players Orchestra at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDxNsaain5g.There is one flaw in the music, and I've asked Scott Lasky about that, but, pish, it in no way detracts. Enjoy.

Charlie Chaplin's short film "Pay Day" is obviously a silent film, so it has to rely completely on slapstick for it's comedy. There are a few written words, but those aren't overly amusing. The sight gags are simple, but amusing and well executed, and despite a lack of plot after the beginning, this is still a decent and amusing way to spend 30 minutes.A worker (Charlie Chaplin) is excited for his pay day. But first he has to go through one more day of work, with the angry foreman. And as angry as the foreman is, he's no where near as angry as the worker's wife. She takes all of the her husband's money from work, and he has to sneak some to go out for the night. So the worker goes out on the town for a night and goes through several gags that end with his wife figuring out he took some of his money back.Charlie plays a goofy character here. He's amusing, and over the top and silly. All this short is, is Charlie going through several different scenes and making mistakes. It's hard to review this, as it really didn't have much content, but it was thoroughly amusing. One thing that was strange about it was how mean this guy's wife is. She's obviously the antagonist and the set-up for the entire second half of the film, but geez, she takes all of her husbands money each week, and she doesn't let him keep anything to eat with. He really should've divorced that woman.Some scenes that are particularly well done are a trolley scene, and the bricklaying scene. The bricklaying scene at the beginning is a very well directed cause and effect scene where the work elevator goes up and down, causing people's food to be eaten on a different floor, and lots of mischief. The trolley scene features Charlie trying to get a ride, but the overcrowded car is hard to get in to. It's a very well done scene and it's a really great scene for slapstick comedy, and seems to be inspiration for future film scenes.This Chaplin short didn't set the world on fire. It's an amusing little short with a lot of gags. It's a fun watch, but that's about it.My rating: *** out of ****. 30 mins.

"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".

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.