The Gold Rush (1925) - film review

An anonymous tramp makes the journey to Alaska, hoping to make his fortune in the gold rush.  Caught in a snow storm, he takes refuge in a log cabin in which he confronts an escaped convict, Black Larsen, and another prospector, Big Jim McKay.  The latter has just discovered a large gold deposit, but Larsen attempts to steal it for himself, only to come to a sticky end.  Realising he is not cut out for the life of a prospector, the tramp heads into town to look for work.  At a dance hall, he meets a young woman named Georgia and quickly realises that there is more to life than wealth.  Although he is besotted with her, will she love him in return...?

Perhaps no other film captures the magic and humour of Charlie Chaplin more than his 1925 silent masterpiece The Gold Rush.  The most ambitious film that Chaplin had made up until this point, it is chock-full of the kind of hilarious comic set pieces that earned him his enduring reputation as the greatest comic performer of all time.  Unencumbered by the excessive sentimentality of his later films, The Gold Rush is one of the most entertaining and truthful of Chaplin’s films, and the one that has perhaps dated the least. 

This may appear to be a polished work, but its production was by no means trouble free.   Filming had to be aborted after six months when the lead actress, Lita Grey, became pregnant by her director.  Aged 12, Grey had made her film debut (a small role) in a previous Chaplin film, The Kid (1921).  Although barely 16 when she was cast in The Gold Rush, Chaplin was captivated by her and an off-screen romance soon flourished – to the detriment of the film.  Filming was suspended for three months whilst Chaplin and Grey married and a replacement actress was found.  The 19-year-old Georgia Hale was hired too replace Grey.  Chaplin’s marriage to Grey was an unhappy affair for both parties.  Although they had two sons, the marriage ended in divorce in 1927.

Another setback was caused by inclement weather during the location shooting.  Chaplin finally abandoned filming all of the exterior scenes on location and instead decided to shoot them on the back lot of his studios in Hollywood.  This necessitated the construction of huge set representing the mining town – the most elaborate set to appear in a Chaplin film.  In spite of the fact that the film had a complete screenplay prior to filming (the first of Chaplin’s films to have this honour), the production dragged on far longer than anticipated and took fifteen months in total to complete.

The Gold Rush features some of Chaplin’s greatest visual gags, including the scene where the tramp cooks and eats his boot in the manner of a bon vivant and another where he is transformed into a man-sized chicken.  The comic highpoint is the famous dance of the rolls, in which Chaplin performs a comedy marionette dance with forks and bread rolls (which had previously been seen in a Fatty Arbuckle film).

Even Chaplin must have been taken aback by the extraordinary success of The Gold Rush.  It was a box office hit right across the globe and grossed over four million dollars on its first release (making it the most profitable film comedy of the silent era).  At some theatres, the audience reaction to the roll dance sequence was such that the projectionist was requested to stop the film and immediately replay the sequence as an encore.

The film was re-released in 1942 with a few minor changes (the final scene in which the tramp and Georgia kiss is inexplicably excised) and the addition of a score composed by Chaplin.  For this release, the inter-titles were replaced by narration and dialogue spoken by Chaplin himself.  In both versions, The Gold Rush is a timeless comic masterpiece featuring Chaplin at his best, both as a director and as a performer.  This is nothing less than 24 carat brilliance.

© filmsdefrance.com 2009

Write a review for this film...

What do you think of this film?