AN INTRODUCTION TO PAY DAY (1922)

Pay Day was Charlie Chaplin’s penultimate film for First National.

Pay Day marks the final two-reeler comedy showcasing the iconic character, the Little Tramp. In this production, the Little Tramp deviates from his usual role as an outsider from society and instead plays the part of an ordinary man with a house, an overbearing wife and a mundane job–a character that the audience could no doubt relate to  more easily. The opening scene portrays Chaplin working on a construction site, in which he closely and unknowingly escapes accident after accident throughout his morning’s work.

Over the course of the film, a series of Chaplin-esque gags and slapstick comedy continue as the Tramp gets into trouble with his boss, his wife and encounters an accident-ridden journey home. Once the Tramp eventually makes it home and unwittingly falls asleep in the bath, he is woken moments later by his alarm as it is time for another day of work.

To say that the filming for this production was smooth-sailing would be an understatement. Chaplin shot all footage for the night-time scenes over just four nights and all shooting was complete within one month. Chaplin demonstrates an incredible ability to portray the monotonous lifestyle of laborers who desperately search an escape from their job and family demands for a few hours before it begins all over again. For this reason, the everyday viewer could relate to the construction worker and unsurprisingly Pay Day was another well-received Chaplin production.