Gutsycurene Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

Dirtylogy It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Orla Zuniga It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

lugonian PAY DAY (First National, 1922), produced, written and directed by Charlie Chaplin, is one of the all time great silent comedy shorts, and one of Chaplin's most infamous. Though Chaplin sports his signature oversize trousers, derby and twirling cane, he doesn't play the traditional vagabond tramp but a working man with a domineering spouse (Phyllis Allen) after his weekly pay check. There's not much of a story to it, but in true Chaplin essence, enough gags to guarantee 22 minutes of non-stop laughter.The story introduces Charlie as a day laborer arriving late for work, close enough to lunch time. Moments after being caught sneaking in, Charlie appeases his foreman (Mack Swain) with a white lily, which doesn't impress him very much. As Charlie slowly digs a ditch, he quickly lays the bricks at a very high speed. During a lunch break, the foreman's daughter (Edna Purviance) arrives with a boxed lunch she prepared to eat with her father. Charlie's attempt to flirt with the young lady proves as unsuccessful as trying to convince the foreman on pay day that he's underpaid for his overtime. After short changing his "First National Bank" wife (Phyllis Allen) who's come to collect her husband's money, Charlie sneaks off with some take home money for an evening on the town, followed by a series of all night misadventures for the working man. Other members of the Chaplin stock players include Henry Bergman, Sydney Chaplin, Allan Garcia, John Rand and Loyal Underwood.For Chaplin's rare venture in both the work force and domestic situations, it's hard to forget his brick laying sequence; his acquiring of food during the lunch break; disturbing the peace while singing "Sweet Adeline" with a group of drunks; and his many attempts trying to get onto various overcrowded streetcars. Even minor scenes involving cats on the kitchen table and a glimpse of the awaiting Mrs. Chaplin sound asleep while holding onto a rolling pin for her husband shows there's not a single frame wasted in PAY DAY. Everything about PAY DAY works. Everything in it is timed to perfection. As the "THE END" title hits the screen, it makes one wish for more or to know that there's even a possible sequel involving the further misadventures of husband Charlie, the working man. Though Chaplin never produced a sequel of any kind since sequels rarely compare to the originals, as original and creative as Chaplin is, more great comedies for which he starred and directed (CITY LIGHTS, MODERN TIMES) were ahead of him. PAY DAY and others like it are just perfect examples of Chaplin's proper care and perfection to what he can do to get laughs.Unlike most of Chaplin's earlier comedy shorts made during 1914-1917, PAY DAY, along with others produced during his First National Pictures period (1919-23), were those with limited or no reissues. In fact, hardly any Chaplin's comedies from 1918-1923 were ever televised until many years after Chaplin's 1977 death. Before being readily available to home video on the centennial of Chaplin's birth (1989), those long unseen Chaplin shorts and feature length films were restored and accompanied by newly composed scores conducted by Chaplin himself. For the 1989 VHS copy of Chaplin's PAY DAY, it was preceded by his 1925 masterpiece, THE GOLD RUSH. The disadvantage of that issue is that THE GOLD RUSH was not an original print but one taken from the edited 1942 reissue with Chaplin's voice over narration in place of title cards. Fortunately the complete version of THE GOLD RUSH still exists as does PAY DAY, which turns up occasionally on Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere: March 17, 2004). For such a job well done, Chaplin's next pay day is a well deserved raise in salary. (****)

Steffi_P Between his first two feature films, and in his final days with First National studios, Charlie Chaplin kept on producing a handful of short pictures to keep things ticking over with the studio bosses. Reeling off a quickie such as Pay Day was now a simple affair for the professional comic, but the fact that they were no longer his main focus is often evident.Like a few of the First National shorts, Pay Day seems to have been cobbled together from a number of ideas, none of which was substantial enough to be fleshed out into a picture in its own right. So we have the day at the building site, followed by the drunken stagger home, tentatively linked by the idea of it being a payday binge. However both parts yield a fair number of gags, even if the lack of running gags or recurring characters never allows anything to build.Unusually, the only other significant character of this little short is Phyllis Allen playing Charlie's wife. At the age of sixty-one, she is a bit old for Chaplin – about 45 years too old if you consider his choice in real-life wives – but considering he had recently been through his divorce from Wife Number 1 Mildred Harris, the appearance of a frumpy, bossy trouble-and-strife has some explanation. As it is though, her inclusion adds little, and is the kind of cheap characterisation one would expect from the early Keystone pictures. Speaking of which, Pay Day also features ex-Keystone Cop Mack Swain, who in a roundabout way had now ended up as part of the Chaplin stock company. It's good to see Swain, nicely filling in the large burly hole left by the legendary Eric Campbell.As with his previous short The Idle Class, Chaplin seems to be doing a little experimenting with his technique as well, possibly with an eye to using things in his features. There are some very elaborate gags based around split-second timing, something which was already starting to become the domain of Buster Keaton and thus perhaps not advisable for Chaplin to get too much into. Then there is the business with the bricks being thrown up to Charlie, which relies on camera trickery. Again, this is not something which he would have been wise to pursue, as it could soon get gimmicky. Finally there are some close-ups, one of them revealing the obvious falseness of Loyal Underwood's beard, exploring the possibilities of silly faces. These fail simply because they aren't very funny.All in all a bit of a mediocre Chaplin short, providing laughs only because it seems Chaplin could now real off jokes and pratfalls with minimal effort, but lacking in the dedication to make it anything more than a time-filler.

Neil Doyle 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.

caspian1978 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.