John Baumgartner

Bricks-Little-Tramp

PAY DAY (1922, Chaplin)

For a very short time, I was possibly the world’s leading expert on Chaplin’s work. I was making my silent, 1918-period film War Story, an homage to Chaplin’s oeuvre, though with a modern twist (you can see my post on it here). Within a month or two, I had watched, at least twice (but in many cases a half dozen times), every film Chaplin had ever made – his Keystones, Mutuals, First Nationals, and right up to the ones for United Artist, the company he co-founded. I had become friends with the man who restored and owned many of Chaplin’s early work, David Shepard; had spoken to the grandson of Chaplin’s cinematographer Roland H. “Rollie” Totheroh, who knew an amazing amount about his grandfather’s methods; had pitched the project to Chaplin’s estate for their blessing; had hit up Carl Davis to do my score (he’d done the amazing reconstruction and recording of Chaplin’s gorgeous City Lights score – overture here! – he declined, but what resulted from Mike Petrone was arguably even better); I read all the books, his autobiography, etc, etc.

I mention all this to say that I love Chaplin’s work. It was an easy obsession for me – from the first film that I studied of his I was hooked on his mix of sharp, always surprising humor and his sense of humanity and pathos. Bathing in his work helped me create a film that was both steeped in his sensibilities but also uniquely mine, springing freely from my subconscious. It was a beautiful, intense experience, and the appreciation I have for his films will always improve and inform mine.

There are so many moments of Chaplin’s that one could show and write about, but this one has as much to do with the shot as the performer, so I thought it the most appropriate. By the time Chaplin had risen to fame and signed his unprecedented contract with the First National company, he was the highest paid entertainer in the world. (He had just come off his series of shorts for the Mutual company, which I think are arguably his sharpest, though certainly not his deepest.) This meant that he had a lot of power and wiggle room in his craft, enough to really allow him to experiment.

How Chaplin gets it Right

He was known to shoot in the morning, view his dailies at lunch (he had his own film lab), and go back to work in the afternoon re-casting, re-staging, even completely reinventing whole sequences until he would get it just right. (This is incredibly well documented and presented in the fantastic documentary on his work, Unknown Chaplin – which reconstructs his working methods through the study of a miraculously preserved batch of outtakes, something Chaplin would have always burned, but these were secretly squirreled away by Rollie, if I remember correctly.)

So it’s in that spirit that we see this delightfully clever sequence from Pay Day, in which The Tramp takes a job as a brick layer, and we see just how quick-witted and agile The Tramp is. One can imagine the amount of experimentation that went into this shot, and one wonders which take # this actually is!

Here it is – watching from the beginning sets up all you need (including the rules of gravity). I think you’ll figure out quickly which shot I’m pointing out today…

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EXTRA!  EXTRA!  I thought it would be fun to reverse the reverse – that is, show what Chaplin was doing on set before the film is reversed. It’s pretty funny.

Comments

  • August 12, 2011

    His timing and innovation were incredible. He did so much to push the envelope of his art. On top of that the hidden social commentary made his stories strong. Buster Keaton, at Stan Laurel’s funeral, was quoted as saying “Chaplin wasn’t the funniest, I wasn’t the funniest, this man was the funniest.” For me, as much as I love Chaplin, it doesn’t get any funnier than Laurel. What do you think?

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    • August 12, 2011

      “Way Out West”, “Flying Deuces” those are good. Utopia was good but was considered a failure. They have endless shorts that are really good. Laurel was so subtle. It was in the way he moved, his facial expressions… he actually came over from England as Chaplin’s understudy before going out on his own. Buster Keaton was another who was great if you’ve never watched his movies.

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  • August 13, 2011
    Jeremy Cole

    Chaplin is one of those that I always mean to make a serious study of but never quite delve into beyond the occasional clip or short. Maybe he’s so easily overlooked (in terms of actual viewing vs. praise) because people assume it’s more of a history lesson than a fun treat. This was definitely a treat. The more you know about making movies and the more you understand the limited tools he had to work with the more floored you are. I’m going online right now to see what other Chaplin stuff I can dig up!

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  • August 13, 2011
    Jeremy Cole

    Just watched Gold Rush (streaming on Netfilx, thank you very much). That was great, and a good tip of the hat to your Cat’s Meow post.

    My kids were drawn to it like moths but clearly I’ve been remiss in their film 101. Still, their observations were so good and they could follow everything that was going on.

    My favorite quotes: After watching for a bit: “Is he a grown up?” Me: “Yes, but he’s a little silly. Do you like this?” Them: “Yeah, but the volume is down.” Them: “What is this?” Me: “It’s a movie” Them: “How come nobody is talking?” Me: “It’s a called a silent movie…(I explain the concept)” Them: Can we watch Netflix?” Me: “This IS Netflix.” Them: THIS is Netflix?

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      • August 14, 2011
        Torsloke

        Well I’m an idiot. I don’t know why, perhaps mislead by the line about demonstrating how gravity works, but I thought the secret was filming it upside down. Thanks for the reveal!

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  • August 14, 2011
    Jeremy Cole

    cool. I’ll have to check those out next. Thanks for the great post!

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  • March 8, 2015
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