Directed by:
Charlie ChaplinScreenplay:
Charlie ChaplinCinematography:
Roland TotherohComposer:
Charlie ChaplinCast:
Charlie Chaplin, Mack Swain, Henry Bergman, Georgia Hale, Jack Adams, Albert Austin, Lita Grey, Tom Murray, Mary Williams, Frank Aderias, Leona Aderias (more)Plots(1)
A long line of people snaking into the distance, climb the infamous Chilkoot Pass on their way to the gold fields of the Klondike. Charlie makes his own way, rounding an overhang on a narrow mountain path with his customary one-legged hop. Meanwhile on a cliff edge Big Jim McKay has struck gold. Charlie makes his way over the snowfields using a compass drawn on a piece of paper. A storm brews up and Charlie
takes refuge in a cabin belonging to desperado Black Larsen. At first Larsen tries to evict Charlie but the force of the wind blows him back in. Big Jim, forced out of his camp by the storm, also reaches the shelter of the cabin but faces up to Larsen and wins the right to stay. The food runs out and Charlie resorts to eating a candle, hiccupping when Larsen confronts him with the theft. Likewise when Big Jim comes into the cabin licking his lips Charlie looks round anxiously for the dog. Desperately hungry, they draw lots for who will go to seek food and Larsen leaves. On the way he encounters two lawmen who are pursuing him and kills them both. In the cabin Charlie cooks his own boot as a Thanksgiving dinner. He gives the upper to Big Jim and takes the sole and laces which he eats like spaghetti, and sucks the hobnails as if they were chicken bones. Big Jim, starving, begins to hallucinate and sees Charlie as a chicken. A chase ensues followed by an uneasy truce in which Charlie sleeps with footwear on his hands in case Big Jim tries to eat him in the night. He wakes, thinking his companion is attacking him again but finds it is a bear that has wandered in. They eat the bear. Larsen meanwhile has run across Big Jim's claim and waits for his return. After the storm Big Jim leaves the cabin and returns to his gold but Larsen knocks him cold with a shovel. Larsen though has no chance to take advantage of the claim as a section of cliff collapses under him.
Charlie wanders into the gold rush town and sees Georgia, the town beauty and dance hall girl, emerging from a photographer's. He is immediately smitten and goes later to the dance hall where she is looking at the pictures with Jack, a broad- shouldered male who fancies himself as a ladies man. Jack grabs one of the photos, tears it up and it flutters to the ground where Charlie shyly tries to retrieve it without being noticed. Georgia comes towards him smiling with hands outstretched, but it is someone standing behind him that she is greeting. He wanders off and later when Jack is bothering her, Georgia picks Charlie to dance with her, as the most ineligible man in the room. Charlie is hampered by the loss of his belt and southward drift of his pants. He grabs desperately for something to tie them up with but unhappily picks a lead connected to a large dog. Jack picks on Charlie in revenge and Charlie mistakenly hits Jack by dislodging a clock. Thinking he has laid him out by his own strength he leaves as a hero. Next day, Charlie passes a cabin in which breakfast is being made and falls in a dead faint. The generous owner Hank invites him in and feeds him. Charlie stays in the cabin while Hank goes off prospecting. Georgia and friends pass by playing in the snow, and they stop to tease Charlie by being kind to him. He invites them to dinner on New Year's Eve and they accept, mocking his old world manners. Charlie, in need of funds, clears snow from one storefront by piling it up in front of the store next door. He works his way down the street until he comes to the jail when he thinks better of it. He buys food and gifts for the girls but they don't come. He falls asleep dreaming of the good time they are having, entertaining them with his dancing rolls and getting a kiss from Georgia. He wakes as midnight strikes and wanders past the windows of the dance hall where he sees them all celebrating. Georgia suddenly remembers and goes across to the cabin but is filled with remorse when she sees the empty cabin with the table set with presents.
Big Jim makes it into town but is afflicted with amnesia and can't remember where his claim is. Charlie receives a note from Georgia apologising and rushes to find her, ignoring Jack's constant attempts to trip him up. Charlie is intercepted by Big Jim, who drags him off to look for the gold mine. Charlie just has time to tell Georgia he will return for her as a rich man. They reach the cabin, this time well supplied, and Charlie gets drunk taking nips from a bottle as he unloads the baggage. During the night a storm blows up and the cabin blows away, settling precariously on the edge of a precipice. Charlie blames the rocking of the cabin on his hangover and is only made aware of the emergency when he tries to go outside and finds himself hanging over empty space. He and Big Jim struggle to keep the cabin on an even keel and have to climb out up the floor. Big Jim makes it out and sees the claim, forgetting Charlie, and remembers him just in time to throw him a rope as the cabin goes over the edge. We next see them on a steamship, dressed in several fur coats, evidently wealthy. A journalist asks Charlie to recreate his story by dressing in his former clothes and posing for a picture. As Charlie obliges he steps backwards too far and falls onto the steerage deck below, right into the path of Georgia who has left the Klondike. The ships' officers are looking for a stowaway and she makes the assumption it must be him in his rags, and offers to pay his fare. The truth is discovered and Charlie asks his valet to set another place for dinner. Posing for the photographer as a couple, the pair kiss. (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Reviews (4)
Not as thematically important as The Dictator and not as entertaining and crazy as Modern Times, but still a very charming and unique movie in its own right. The vitality and sophistication of the scenes are once again breathtaking, the scene balancing on the edge of a cliff is now as legendary as Charlie himself, and the main idea, i.e. to discourage gold diggers from going to an inhospitable no-man's land where you will soon have only your own shoe for lunch, is certainly appreciated, too. But Chaplin’s peak is somewhere else. 80%
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Usually, I give out stars based on how a film affects me emotionally. Taken from this perspective, I would be more modest in giving stars to The Gold Rush. After all, Charlie Chaplin plays on compassion with the main character in a way that is too flashy for my taste. However, if one includes reason in the evaluation, it must be acknowledged that this film represents one of the peaks of the film decade at the time and still belongs to the golden treasury of world cinema. Some gags, like the visual hallucination that transforms the gold digger's companion into a tempting roast, have permeated the general consciousness. When I look back at the era of silent film, I find only a minimum number of titles that invite me to watch them again and have something to offer me. The Gold Rush is one of them. Overall impression: 85%.
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Our Little Fellow, this time in Alaska. Now we get a hearty new commentary by Chaplin, his music, and a sprinkling of original direction and acting. I certainly don't feel that this is the film of my lifetime - it's enjoyable, it's playful, and I enjoy the context of the famous shoe-eating scenes and the reprise of the rolls dance, but that's about it. I'm mainly impressed with the high-fiving for how Chaplin finished and perfected his films.
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I'm quite new to Charlie Chaplin, so I'm lovingly discovering what this man was capable of. He's not as much of a daredevil as Buster Keaton, but he's fearless nonetheless. He wanted his films to be perfect, and he succeeded. In this case, the special effects are very unique, especially the scene with the house on the edge of the cliff. But the story it contains is also strong, more than one would think. Imagine it as a real drama, and you'll immediately see that it takes an extraordinary person to entertain you with it.
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