The Gold Rush [Criterion Collection]

Overview

The Gold Rush, Charles Chaplin's second feature for United Artists, was the film by which, he said at the time, he wanted to be remembered. It is considered by most critics and directors to be one of the greatest films ever made, an epic, but with the delicate character touches that so characterize Chaplin's later work. Its setting and theme were suggested to Chaplin by two sources -- seeing a stereopticon slide of gold miners climbing the Chilkoot Pass in 1898 Alaska, and reading of the Donner party, who had to resort to cannibalism to survive their pioneering journey across the Sierra Nevada mountains in 1846. It is truly amazing that Chaplin could fashion one of his greatest comedies from these images of hardship and tragedy. Released in two versions by Chaplin, as a silent in 1925 and again in 1942 with a narration spoken by Chaplin and a wonderful music score composed by him, The Gold Rush substantially changed in plot with regard to two of the major characters. The following synopsis is of the original version. In the frozen north of the 1890's a lone prospector (Charlie) rounds a snowy crag, unaware that he is pursued by a large bear, who ambles into his cave as Charlie trudges on. Next we meet Big Jim McKay (Mack Swain) who has just found and staked his claim on a mountain of gold. The elements are the co-star of the film, as a huge blizzard drives Charlie into the cabin of fugitive murderer, Black Larsen (Tom Murray). Emerging from hiding from a potentially dangerous intruder, Larsen tries to chase Charlie from the cabin but is blown out the back door by the furious wind as Charlie opens the front. They are soon joined by Big Jim, and a fight ensues when Larsen threatens the others with a shotgun. As Jim and Larsen struggle, Charlie energetically tries to avoid the shotgun barrel which always seems pointed in his direction. Big Jim wins the fight, and the three settle into an uneasy peace. After days of hunger, it is decided that the three will cut cards to see who goes for food. Black Larsen loses and bids farewell to the others. He comes upon the camp of two lawmen and in a shootout, kills them both and takes off with their supplies. On Thanksgiving day Charlie prepares dinner for Big Jim and himself, a feast of Charlie's right shoe.There follows one of the most brilliant and celebrated scenes in film history as Charlie feasts on the sole and consumes it as a gourmet would a sumptuous meal, twirling the laces like spaghetti, sucking the boot nails like bones and offering a bent one to Jim as if it were a wish bone, as Jim chews on the upper, clearly disgusted. Meanwhile, Black Larsen has found Big Jim's gold claim and has set to work filling a sled with gold. Back at the cabin the pair are hungry again, but Jim refuses Charlie's offer to cook the other boot. Instead, Jim's hunger-crazed mind transforms Charlie into a huge chicken, which he chases around the cabin until Charlie seizes what he takes to be Jim's fur-clad leg, but is actually the leg of a large bear. When it runs out of the cabin, Charlie grabs the rifle and shoots. Sending Big Jim out for the meat, Charlie busily sets the table. The end of the storm causes a parting of the ways, Charlie to the mining town and Jim back to his claim. He confronts Black Larsen there, who fells Jim with a blow from a shovel. Larsen escapes with the stolen gold, but the elements intervene and he is carried to his death as the cliff upon which he stands breaks off, plunging him into the chasm. Charlie arrives in town, selling his mining gear and proceeding to the saloon where he firsts sees Georgia (Georgia Hale), a dance-hall girl whom he is immediately smitten with. Ladies man Jack Cameron is there celebrating with the other dance hall girls but when he demands Georgia dance with him, she spitefully chooses the most unlikely of partners -- Charlie. As they dance, Charlie loses his belt and the famous baggy pants begin to fall. Luckily Charlie spots a nearby rope and ties it around his waist, only to find that the other end is tied to a large dog, who pulls the Tramp over when it takes off after a cat. Jack again confronts Georgia but Charlie intervenes. Jack pulls Charlie's derby down over his eyes and in the ensuing scuffle Jack is accidentally knocked out by a falling clock. Charlie, thinking he felled Jack with a single blow exits the saloon triumphantly. Charlie's next task is to find a place to live. Passing by the cabin of Hank Curtis (Henry Bergman), and smelling the food cooking within, he feigns unconsciousness. Kindly Hank carries him inside, stiff as a board,and gives him food and drink. Meanwhile Big Jim wanders aimlessly in the snow, suffering from amnesia due to the blow he had received from Black Larsen. Hank leaves the cabin in Charlie's care while he goes to tend his mine. Charlie, filling an oil lamp spills some of the fuel on his cloth wrapped foot. Georgia and her girlfriends, playing near the cabin, engage in a snowball fight. An errant snowball hits the cabin door and when Charlie opens it to investigate, he's hit in the face with another. He's delighted to see Georgia again, and she feigns equal delight. Invited into the cabin, Georgia finds her torn picture and the rose she had given Charlie under the pillow on his bed. She shows these jokingly to the others, and the girls make a fuss over Charlie when he returns from fetching firewood. One of them accidentally drops a lit match on Charlie's inflammable wrapped foot and he unknowingly places the burning appendage under her chair. When her seat begins to burn, Charlie douses the fire and puts his foot in a bucket of water. The girls depart, Georgia promising that they'll come to dinner on New Years Eve. In order to earn money for the dinner, Charlie shovels snow in town, piling it from one store front onto the next until he realizes that the last one is the jail house. On New Year's Eve, in the now festively decorated cabin, Charlie busily prepares dinner, while a celebration is going on in the nearby saloon. After setting the table with party favors and basting the roast, he sits down to rest and we next see him entertaining the girls, who are excitedly displaying their presents. Charlie, asked to make a speech, instead performs the brilliant "Dance of the Oceana Rolls,," one of the most enduring images in film history. He spears two dinner rolls with forks and uses them as dancing feet. In the darkened background his head and upper body seem to meld with the image and he elegantly dances, kicks, shuffles and splits, to the delight of the girls. When the performance ends, the image crossfades to a dreaming Charlie, who is alone in the cabin. On the stroke of midnight, Georgia and Jack are together in the saloon, ringing in the New Year. Georgia fires a pistol and the report awakens Charlie in the cabin. Realizing he's been stood up, he stands in his doorway listening to the strains of "Auld Lang Syne" coming from the saloon. He makes his way to the saloon, observing from the window the revelry within. Georgia remembers her promise and suggests that they all go to the cabin and have some fun at Charlie's expense. On their way out of the saloon Jack asks Georgia if she loves him; she says yes and they kiss. When they show up at the cabin, Georgia goes in first and seeing the party preparations, realizes that the joke has gone too far. When the others come in she chases them out, and when Jack forces another kiss, she slaps him angrily. The next day, Big Jim wanders into town and going to the assayers office, he unsuccessfully tries to stake his claim, but can't recall its location. He says that if he could find the cabin he could locate his mountain of gold. Sitting at a balcony table in the saloon, Georgia writes a note to Jack apologizing for her behaviour and professing her love. As Charlie wanders into the dance hall, Jack, who is sitting with the other dance hall girls, receives the note. Observed by Georgia, he disdainfully laughs and tells the waiter who delivered it to take it to Charlie who is overjoyed when he reads it and tries to locate Georgia. Just then he bumps into Big Jim who raucously tells Charlie that if he can take him to the cabin, he'll make Charlie a millionaire. An astonished Georgia watches as Charlie climbs to the balcony and bids her farewell declaring his love. Back at the cabin, this time well-stocked with food and drink, the two prospectors settle in for the night. During the night another storm blows the cabin to the brink of a precipice, a rope attached to the cabin and lodged in some rocks, the only thing which keeps it from plummeting over the edge. When the men arise in the morning, Charlie believes that the rocking of the cabin as he moves from end to end is due to his overindulgence the night before. They soon discover their predicament and in a hilarious scene, they attempt to escape from the teetering cabin. Finally safe on the cliff as the cabin falls, Big Jim discovers that the spot on which they're standing is his mountain of gold. On board a liner returning to America, Big Jim and Charlie are now multimillionaires. Asked to pose for press photographers in his old mining clothes Charlie repairs to his cabin to change. He gazes longingly at Georgia's gilt-framed photo; she was gone when he returned to the mining town. On deck, Charlie poses for the press. Asked to step backward, he falls to the deck below into a coil of ropes, beside which sits Georgia, returning to the States in steerage. Having overheard crew members discussing a stowaway for whom they're searching, Georgia assumes it's Charlie and she attempts to hide him. When he's discovered, she offers to pay his fare to prevent his arrest. The captain descends from above and identities Charlie as Big Jim's partner, the multimillionaire, much to Georgia's shock and amazement. Charlie tells his butler to prepare for a guest, and when a reporter asks who the girl is, his whispered answer elicits the pressman's congratulations. Asked to pose together on the upper deck, they look at each other and kiss. The reporter complains that they've ruined the picture (perhaps implying Chaplin's anticipation of criticism for ruining the film with a happy ending) but Charlie waves him away, and as he and Georgia continue their kiss, the scene fades out. The changes made to the film for the 1942 re-release -- eliminating the closing kiss, changing Georgia's note from a love note to Jack to an apology to Charlie, and cutting the scene where Georgia confesses her love for Jack, softens Georgia's character and lessens the importance of Jack's. The new ending has Charlie and Georgia making their way up the steps to the upper deck, and into a less-certain future, as the scene fades.

Product Details

Release Date:	06/12/2012
UPC:	0715515095617
Original Release:	1925
Source:	Criterion Collection
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[B&W]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono, Dolby Digital Surround, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround, Dolby Digital Stereo]
Language:	English
Time:	2:40:00
Sales rank:	17,426

Special Features

Disc One: New Audio Commentary for the 1925 version by Chaplin biographer Jeffrey Vance; ; Disc 2: Three new programs: Presenting "The Gold Rush," which traces the film's history and features filmmaker Kevin Brownlow and Vance; A Time Of Innovation: Visual Effects in "The Gold Rush," featuring effects specialist Craig Barron and Chaplin cinematographer Roland Totheroh; and Music by Charles Chaplin, featuring Conductor and Composer Timothy Brock; Chaplin Today: "The Gold Rush" (2002), a short documentary featuring filmmaker Idrissa Quédraogo; Four Trailers; ; Plus: An Essay by critic Luc Sante and James Agee's review of the 1942 release

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Mack Swain	Big Jim
Tom Murray	Black Larson
Georgia Hale	Georgia,Actor
Henry Bergman	Hank Curtis
Malcolm Waite	Jack
Betty Morissey	Georgia's Friend
Charlie Chaplin	The Lone Prospector,Composer
Jack Adams	Man in Dance Hall
Lillian Adrian	Woman in Dance Hall
Harry Arras	Man in Dance Hall
Albert Austin	Prospector
George Brock	Man in Dance Hall
Cecile Cameron	Woman in Dance Hall
Heinie Conklin	Prospector
Rebecca Conroy	Woman in Dance Hall
Sam Allen	Actor
William Bell	Actor
William Bradford	Actor
William Butler	Actor
Leland Carr	Actor
Kay Desleys	Georgia's Friend
J.C. Fowler	Actor
Allan Garcia	Prospector
Inez Gomez	Actor
Ben Hart	Actor
Jack Herrick	Actor
George Holt	Actor
Harry Jones	Actor
John King	Actor
Geraldine Leslie	Actor
Joan Lowell	Georgia's Friend
Chris-Pin Martin	uncredited,Squaw
John McGrath	Actor
John Millerta	Actor
Barbara Pierce	Manicurist,Actor
John Rand	Prospector
Frank Rice	Actor
Jane Sherman	Actor
Joe Smith	Actor
John Tully	Actor
John Wallace	Actor
Tom Wood	Prospector
William P. Perry	Composer
Carli Elinor	Composer

Technical Credits

Charles Chaplin

Charles Chaplin

Screenwriter,Producer,Director

Scene Index

Disc #1 -- The Gold Rush
1. Opening Titles [1:36]
2. Chilkoot Pass [2:57]
3. Black Larsen [5:20]
4. Three Hungry Men [4:12]
5. "Thanksgiving Dinner" [2:58]
6. An Appetizing Friend [6:04]
7. "Parting Of The Ways" [2:00]
8. Georgia [5:08]
9. Dancing At The Monte Carlo [5:28]
10. Hank Curtis And His Cabin [3:19]
11. Surprise Guests [5:47]
12. "Hustled And Shoveled" [1:29]
13. New Year's Eve [4:08]
14. Georgia Remembers [4:21]
15. The Return Of Big Jim [:41]
16. Letter From Georgia [2:11]
17. Back At The Cabin [2:33]
18. Then Came The Dawn [6:31]
19. Homeward-Bound [5:26]
1. Opening Titles [2:34]
2. Chilkoot Pass [4:25]
3. Black Larsen [5:42]
4. Three Hungry Men [4:41]
5. "Thanksgiving Dinner" [3:00]
6. An Appetizing Friend [6:40]
7. "Parting Of The Ways" [2:24]
8. Georgia [6:20]
9. Dancing At The Monte Carlo [6:28]
10. Hank Curtis And His Cabin [4:03]
11. Surprise Guests [6:48]
12. "Begged, Borrowed, And Shoveled" [1:50]
13. New Year's Eve [4:38]
14. Georgia Remembers [6:02]
15. The Return Of Big Jim [1:42]
16. "Please Forgive Me" [4:16]
17. "The Cabin At Last!" [2:55]
18. "All Was Calm" [7:28]
19. Homeward-Bound [7:02]
1. The Donner Party [2:34]
2. Mini Documentary Of The Yukon [4:25]
3. Tom Murray And Gyp, The Dog [5:42]
4. Lita Grey Chaplin [4:41]
5. "Exhibit A Of Chaplin's Comedy" [3:00]
6. Chaplin's Chicken And Chuck Jones [6:40]
7. The Feel Of An Epic Team [2:24]
8. Georgia Hale [6:20]
9. Dance Hall Girls And Prostitutes [6:28]
10. Chaplin As Composer [4:03]
11. Chaplin As Director [6:48]
12. Three Holidays [1:50]
13. "The Dance Of The Rolls" [4:38]
14. Daddy Taylor [6:02]
15. A Woman Of Paris [1:42]
16. The Life Of The Gold Rush [4:16]
17. Monte Bell's Suggestion [2:55]
18. The Teetering Cabin [7:28]
19. "The Most Insecure Man" [7:02]
Disc #2 -- The Gold Rush
1. Idrissa Quéraogo [4:15]
2. The Chicken Scene [5:49]
3. Filming in the Sierra Nevadas [3:58]
4. Lita Grey Chaplin and Georgia Hale [3:58]
5. Forces of Nature [4:22]
6. Dance of the Rolls [4:31]

Menu

Disc #1 -- The Gold Rush
   The Chaplin - Approved 1942 Rerelease
      Play
      Chapters
         Color Bars
   The Original 1925 Film
      Play
      Chapters
         Color Bars
      Commentary
         Commentary: On/Off
         Index
            Color Bars
Disc #2 -- The Gold Rush
   Presenting The Gold Rush
      Play
   Chaplin Today: "The Gold Rush"
      Play
      Index
   A Time Of Innovation: Visual Effects In The Gold Rush
      Play
   Music by Charles Chaplin
      Play
   Four Trailers
      Play

Editorial Reviews

Not only a milestone in screen comedy but also a masterpiece of silent-era filmmaking, The Gold Rush is considered by some critics and aficionados to be the best of Charlie Chaplin’s feature-length movies. Ranking alongside City Lights and Modern Times, this 1925 triumph represents quite a departure for Chaplin’s beloved Little Tramp character, who heretofore had been seen in modern-day settings. The Gold Rush transports him back to the Klondike at the turn of the century, when gold fever attracted prospectors by the thousands to a bleak, inhospitable land. The Tramp, easily smitten, falls in love with a dance-hall girl (Georgia Hale) who initially rejects him in favor of more prosperous suitors. Chaplin’s favorite foil, Mack Swain, cheerfully chews up the scenery as a burly prospector whom the Tramp invariably exasperates. The comic highlights include Chaplin’s inspired use of dinner rolls, which he makes appear to be dancing "the Lambeth Walk," and an iconic sequence in which, starving, he cooks and eats a leather shoe. Another, which finds the Tramp inside a rickety cabin teetering on the edge of a cliff, was so effective that it was copied several times by comedians in later films. Available for many years in slightly truncated form, The Gold Rush has recently been restored to its original glory and looks better on this DVD than in any of its previous home-video incarnations.

Barnes & Noble - Ed Hulse

The film he said he wanted to be remembered by, Charles Chaplin's masterwork seamlessly combined humor and tragedy as his refined and compassionate little tramp struggled to strike gold in 1898 Alaska. Chaplin's gift for sight gags and intricate mime is most memorably displayed as he feasts on a boiled boot sole, twirling the laces like spaghetti and sucking on the nails as if they were a gourmet delicacy. Even as Chaplin makes comedy out of starvation and struggle, he reveals the dehumanizing effects of greed as it impinges on the capacity to love. Over a year in production and filmed partly on location near Lake Tahoe to recreate the look of photos of Yukon prospectors, The Gold Rush became Chaplin's first hit for his United Artists studio, reaffirming his superstar status after a directorial detour through drama in A Woman of Paris (1923). The reedited 1942 reissue included music and new narration by Chaplin. The Gold Rush has often been paired with Buster Keaton's The General (1927) as the two greatest silent comedies.

All Movie Guide - Lucia Bozzola