Work (1915)

WORK is one of the early silent shorts that Charlie Chaplin made before he'd quite got to grips with his famous 'little tramp' character. In this one he plays a painter and decorater who gets put upon by his boss before wreaking havoc in a typical house. Despite the short length I found this film dragged a little, with lots of scenarios featuring repetitive slapstick gags and jokes which go on and on and on. Saying that, there are some fun incidents involving a bucket of wallpaper glue and an explosive stove, and Chaplin works hard at all the pratfalls and jokes, so it's still enjoyable.

Work is a rather messy Chaplin short but feels overlong as some of the situations drag on.Chaplin plays a workman on his way to decorate a house, we see him pulling his boss on a cart who also whips him, there are several scenes where he crosses a train track just before the train passes through and then he struggles to get up a hill. In one scene the boss invites a friend to hop on the cart. You can see Chaplin is already taking a stand against exploitative capitalism already!Once they arrive at the middle class house, there is all kinds of slapstick as they try to wallpaper the house, there is an exploding stove, Chaplin takes a shine to the maid, and the householder's wife is visited by her secret lover.This is the first Chaplin short I have seen in some years, they just do not get repeated as often as they used to be on television. In Work Chaplin has not found his 'tramp' persona but there is some good skills used to for the slapstick but it gets too repetitive.

The first scene of Chaplin in this movie is of him drawing a carriage while his masters sit in the back as he tries to take them up a hill to amusing results. That's all you need to know to appreciate this treatise on work and the pains that man goes to achieve it. We all have to work to pay the bills, but the characters homes he visits in the movie don't have to work, the way he does, that is the hard labor of using one's hands and seem precarious of it. Chaplin loved to spoof the rich or the idle class as they are known. Maybe, he felt being born with a golden spoon is bad. There is nothing wrong with that. It's how one lives with such advantages and disposes of his willed upbringing that castigates the self. But not to Chaplin, who goes on to wreck havoc in a series of set pieces that ends with destruction and a wink to the camera; an act of farewell and goodbye. Is it farewell to work and a hooray for idleness, I cannot say but like a cartoon character who has preyed the deed, he takes us along and makes us laugh, even if I do not agree with his accusations.

"Work" is among the better of Chaplin's early comedies. It has a humorous situation that sets up some good comedy, and a good assortment of material. The story has Charlie as a paper-hanger, going with his supervisor to do a job in a home that already has enough problems. It does squander some screen time on material that isn't very funny, but then there are some very good moments that make up for it. There are also a couple of good subtle gags along with the more obvious physical comedy. It's the kind of setup that in later years Chaplin could have used to make a real classic. Here, it's unrefined, but it's still good entertainment. If you like Chaplin's earlier, less polished comedies, you should find this one worth a look.