Pay Day

In this brisk silent comedy, a hard working bricklayer heads home with his wife after a long week on the job. He looks forward to a rare evening of simple pleasures while she frets about money and the consequences of his spending. The couple clash as plans for celebration collide with worries over wages and responsibility. The Laborer, played by Chaplin, is torn between a simple craving for freedom and his wife's caution, while a lively supporting crowd consisting of the Foreman, his Daughter, and a friendly lunch-cart man fuels chaos with quick gags. The humor hinges on everyday choices and the push and pull of duty.

Directed by Charlie Chaplin, Pay Day is a two-reel silent comedy released in 1922. Chaplin plays the Laborer with Phyllis Allen as his wife, Mack Swain as the Foreman, and Edna Purviance as the Foreman's Daughter.

Pay Day helped reinforce Chaplin's stature as a social satirist who can fuse big and small jokes. Its sequences around a paycheck as a trigger for temptation echo through later films and keep surfacing in discussions of labor era humor worldwide.

Critics widely praised the brisk pacing and Chaplin's blend of humor with social bite, noting how the film lightly treats wage earners facing temptations after a hard week and the tiny rebellions that spark relief.