The Pawnshop (1916)
Ladder hi jinks, lots and lots of fisticuffs, and about as many slide whistles as there were in that fireman one from the first batch of these. “The Pawnshop” is funny although it’s even more episodic than most of the others.
What this helps illustrate about Charlie Chaplin is one of my favorite things about his characters–that they can be so clumsy and so graceful at the same time. Again, his character is completely inept as the assistant at a pawnshop. He’s constantly jacking shit up, but he does it with the elegance of a ballerina and it’s charming. Falling with grace isn’t easy, and Chaplin does it so effortlessly in this.
James T. Kelley has a great part in this one as a guy who has been dead for 105 years. He’s got a sad story.
There are a handful of really good bits, but my favorite is watching Chaplin repair a clock. It’s the kind of thing you see a lot in silent comedies, but that doesn’t make it any less amusing.
