The Bank

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, incorporating a dream sequence inspired by Fred Karno's JIMMY THE FEARLESS. Just as in the Karno sketch (in which Chaplin starred as Jimmy, a downtrodden young man who becomes a hero in his dreams) in THE BANK Charlie dreams he saves Edna in an attempted bank robbery, only to wake up and discover it was a dream. The film's equivocal ending was new to film comedy. Such endings became 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.