Charlie the janitor loves Edna, the pretty bank secretary, but her sweetheart is another Charles, the cashier. One of the best of the Chaplin Essanay comedies, the film's plot is a reworking of his Keystone film The New Janitor with the dream sequence inspired by Fred Karno's music hall sketch, Jimmy the Fearless. The film's equivocal ending was new to film comedy, later becoming a signature of the Chaplin films. The memorable close-up of Chaplin in THE BANK, when his note and gift of a few flowers to Edna are rejected, anticipates the ending of City Lights.In Chaplin's Essanay Comedies, made in 1915, cinema's greatest comedian was first able to build his screen work around his performance style rather than forcing himself, as before, into Mack Sennett's frenzied Keystone comedy matrix. With this freedom
Chaplin evolved in a year from the gag comedian of "His New Job" to the brilliant pantomimist of "A Night Out," "The Champion," "The Tramp" and "Shanghaied" to the profound satirist of "Police."
This download is only available to US customers.The DVD purchase of this download contains all of Chaplin's Essanay Comedies Vol. 2 downloads.