Charlie Chaplin’s sixth film for Mutual is one with very
high highs and disappointingly low lows. It features a scenario and story which
doesn’t really go anywhere but also features several moments of slapstick that
are amongst his best to date.
Chaplin stars as a pawnshop assistant and gets in a long
running fight with fellow employee John Rand. Typically inept at his job,
Chaplin is eventually fired only to be taken back on straight away after his
boss Henry Bergman has a change of heart. Meanwhile Chaplin’s attentions are
drawn to Bergman’s daughter Edna Purviance who is busy baking in the back of
the shop. Trouble appears late on as a thief, Eric Campbell enters the shop
intent on taking it for everything it’s got.
