This may be the short film from Charlie Chaplin, in which he plays the most tragic character of his career. At work, he's hungry and needs to steal his co-worker's lunch. He's married to a considerably older, not even remotely attractive gold-digger wife, who's a pest to poor old Charlie. And finally, when he receives the paycheck, which is as low always, and tries to hide it, the wife takes it away immediately. No surprise the little man goes to the bar at night to drink away his sorrows. When he decides to get home, all the trains are packed and Charlie repeatedly attempts to hop on one, but here he comes as short as everywhere else. So after a long walk through the rain, he finally reaches the dragon's cave and as the alarm clock rings, the dragon makes sure in resolute fashion that Charlie (without food and sleep) gets to work early in the morning again.I feel most Chaplin short films haven't aged too well, but this one is an exception, mainly thanks to Phyllis Allen, whose characters interactions with Chaplin are a joy to watch. The scenes with the two are easily the highlight, i.e. the return from work and the scenes right at the end. She's truly sinister and I wouldn't have minded if she had starred in a couple more Chaplin films. The construction work scenes early on were okay. The pub scenes were the weakest part of the film, although the butcher wagon was kinda funny. I believe this is one of the better Chaplin short films and a good start to get in the legendary silent actor's body of work.

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.

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.

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.