The Gold Rush (1925)

Charlie Chaplin brings his Tramp to the Alaskan Klondike in search of striking it rich in The Gold Rush. It was this film in which Chaplin proclaimed upon its premiere and for years following that he wished he would be remembered for above all his other films, and he said this for many a great reason. This film has so many elements that makes a film enjoyable for its audience and would create some of the great moments that Chaplin would be remembered for for the remainder of his life.

The picture tells the story of our lovable Tramp arriving in Alaska is search of striking it rich during the Alaskan gold rush period. (Which puts us around the late 1890 area, but that is beside the point.) Once there he prospects with a large, tough man named Big Jim (Jack Swain) who take refuge from a blizzard in the cabin of rather shady man named Black Larsen (Tom Murry). Larsen at first tries to rid himself of the two, but Big Jim takes charge to allow them to spend the remainder of the storm in the comfort of the cabin. Many gags occur here after the food supply runs out and the men are staving. This includes the chasing of the Tramp byBig Jim after Jim visualizes him as a juicy chicken, also we see the famous scene where Chaplin prepares and eats his shoe as a source of sustenance. This is achieved with a special shoe produced for the film made of licorice so we can watch Chaplin eat this as a fine food, including eating the laces as if they were pasta.

After the storm Big Jim would find a large claim of gold. This leads to a fight with Big Jim and Larsen. Big Jim would get badly hurt with a blow to the head, Larsen would fall to his death in the scuffle, and the Tramp would leave this to find other ways of living. The Tramp finds a job looking after a prospector's cabin and at this time he falls for a saloon girl, Georgia (Georgia Hale), who he mistakens as having a liking for him. He invites her to have dinner with him, which she says she will attend only as a joke. This leads to a dream segment where The Tramp has dinner with her and woes her over with his charm including the memoerable little dance he performs with two dinner rolls on forks as his feet. All this joy comes crashing down as he awakes only to realize she has stood him up. In the mean time Big Jim comes to The Tramp in need of help, for he is suffering from amnesia due to the head wound. After several gags played within there cabin that nearly falls over tall cliff they discover the gold. The film concludes with our newly rich prospectors heading home on a ship with their new found fortune and fame, but not before the Tramp falls to the lower decks discovering his lovely saloon girl who feels sorry for standing him up since the moment she did it. Here she mistakens him for being a stowaway before he explains his new found wealth and proclaims his love to her, and she loves him in return as the film fades on the long kiss between the two.

This film (unlike say... a Keaton film) has the singular cohesive story as we follow this lovable character who is simply trying to get by in his own world. We are drawn into his actions and root him on in hope that he will succeed, not just with getting by, but with striking it rich and also with falling in love with this vision that had caught his eye. That is what makes this film great. We are ever drawn to this character. The gags are wonderful as well, making us laugh with their creativity. And the heart that Chaplin's Tramp has makes us love him all the more. The scene where he is eating his shoe is a funny piece of comedy as he treats his dirty boiled shoes as if it is a fine delicacy. The Tramp steals your heart as he performs his little soft-shoe dance with simple dinner rolls. This laughter and this great big heart is what makes this film great for anyone to watch and it is clear why it is on many top 100 lists of all time great movie including AFI's top comedies (#25) and top 100 all time movies (#74 in 1998 and #58 in 2007).

As for the history surrounding the film: Chaplin tried to film the movie on a really snowy location, but fail in doing so, making him re-shoot the film at his studio in Hollywood, which is remarkable in recreating a snowy Alaskan setting. Chaplin originally cast his then wife, Lita Grey, in the lead woman role, but recast it with Georgia Hale. The two became quite found of each other by the time the film finished shooting, making the kiss at the conclusion of the film very genuine for them as Hale would state in an interview years later. This was yet another step in the many affairs that Chaplin would have with his fellow actresses. Besides all these side stories, The Gold Rush would become the forth highest grossing silent comedy of all time with over $4.2 million, also making it the highest grossing silent comedy of all time.

Years later in 1942 Chaplin would revisit his masterpiece by recording a score for the film (as this would be the first of a regular occurrence as he would continue to do for his many other silent film until his death). He would also re-edit the film making Georgia's character more forward with her love for the Tramp and editing out the kiss at the end. Perhaps this was done because of he was far separated from his affairs with Georgia. We cannot be sure, but that is how Chaplin liked it and how the audience would watch it from then on in its "sound version." Little did we know, but with Chaplin revisiting his film, he helped preserve it at the same time, for as time went on we found that the original silent pints had badly deteriorated and with these new pints we had better clarity of these saved shots of the silent classic. Today you can find both versions as we see Chaplin's vision change through the passage of time (not too unlike George Lucas had done to some of his films), but it is this silent classic that remains in the heart of Hollywood.