LouHomey From my favorite movies..

Spoonixel Amateur movie with Big budget

Kailansorac Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

Ella-May O'Brien Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Robert J. Maxwell This is funnier and more inventive than some of his earlier work, and it's completely free of the pathos that would be found in his later work.Chaplin is an assistant in a pawn shop that's run by a jumbo-sized, bearded older man who is alternately hysterical and furious and who, in both appearance and demeanor, reminded me of my cabinet-maker grandfather. Chaplin shows an amazing physical dexterity in some of the slapstick episodes and I couldn't help comparing them to the same sorts of gags that showed up in Laurel and Hardy. Without knocking Laurel and Hardy, the approaches are entirely different. Laurel and Hardy try desperately to be polite, efficient, and relatively normal. The pace is slower and more deliberate. Chaplin is faster, more aggressive, meaner. He kicks people in the pants for little reason. And he's a whirlwind of action. Even when he pretends to be unconscious in order to gain the attentions of his girl friend, he falls to the floor in a twinkling and is up just as fast to receive her ministrations.The most memorable scene probably has to do with a customer who brings in an alarm clock. Behind the counter, Charlie exams it as a doctor would examine a patient, percussing its case, twinging its bell, and then he dismantles it roughly before handing the hatful of disordered pieces back to the guy and rejecting it with a shrug.I think I prefer the shenanigans in the back room but partly because they involve that apoplectic owner and, I guess, because after Charlie knocks an armed robber unconscious he breaks the fourth wall, and whips around with a quick TA-TAH to the camera before the film ends.

rdjeffers Monday September 17, 7:00 pm, The Paramount Theater A pawnshop employee (Charles Chaplin) arrives late for work and spends most of his day fighting with a co-worker. He is discharged by the pawnbroker (Henry Bergman), re-hired, and flirts with the boss's daughter (Edna Purviance) while wrestling with her cast-iron doughnuts. Despite his housecleaning efforts, he leaves the place a bigger mess than before he started. On the verge of being fired again, Charlie redeems himself when he knocks out a thief (Eric Campbell) about to rob the shop.The sixth of twelve shorts produced by Chaplin for the Mutual Film Corporation, The Pawnshop makes brilliant use of props in a variety of humorous situations. When he disassembles a customer's (Albert Austin) alarm clock and winds up the empty case, the parts magically re-animate as they lie on the counter, and no one is left standing when Charlie attempts to negotiate the doorway and sidewalk with an eight-foot ladder.

pearseha In The Pawnshop, Chaplin shows all of his finest skill- the surreal ability to turn one thing into another, and the slightly twisted ability to make us believe things we know not to be true. As well, we see exactly how sentimental (yet wicked) the Tramp could be at his best. Many people admit to liking the Tramp best in the later, feature length films, but The Pawnshop may make them think twice. Further, Henry Bergman, long time Chaplin confidant and collaborator, is at his peak in this film. Playing, as usual, an overtly Jewish character, his is one of the most sensitive and lovable Jewish pawnbrokers in silent films. Anyone interested in the portrayal of Jewish identity in early cinema will find The Pawnbroker a good addition to their investigation.

Snow Leopard "The Pawnshop" is a pretty good Charlie Chaplin comedy, with some routine stretches but also some very good slapstick. It features Charlie as an assistant in a pawnshop, engaged in a heated rivalry with another employee, trying to stay on the good side of the boss and the boss's pretty daughter, and occasionally waiting on a customer. The beginning has some very funny moments, with some slapstick that makes good use of the props, which include a feather duster and a ladder. There is a funny finale with Eric Campbell - one of Chaplin's best regular supporting players - playing a thief. The parts in between have some good moments, too, but they overdo it a bit with Charlie's fights with the other shop assistant. Overall, this is an average short feature for Chaplin, which means it is pretty good by most other standards.