The Gold Rush (1925)

The Tramp goes the Klondike in search of gold and finds it and more.

Director:

Charles Chaplin

Writer:

Charles Chaplin

Stars:

Charles Chaplin, Mack Swain, Tom Murray

Top 250 #135 | Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 2 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Charles Chaplin	...	The Lone Prospector
Mack Swain	...	Big Jim McKay
Tom Murray	...	Black Larsen
Henry Bergman	...	Hank Curtis
Malcolm Waite	...	Jack Cameron
Georgia Hale	...	Georgia

Storyline

A lone prospector ventures into Alaska looking for gold. He gets mixed up with some burly characters and falls in love with the beautiful Georgia. He tries to win her heart with his singular charm.

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Plot Keywords:

Gold | Klondike | Love | Alaska | Silly Walk | 

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Genres:

Adventure | Comedy | Family | Romance | Western

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

1925 (Germany)

Also Known As:

La quimera del oro

Filming Locations:

California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$923,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Charles Chaplin Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min 95 min (original) 72 min (1942 re-release) 81 min (edited)

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System) (1942 re-issue) Silent (original release)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Was voted the 15th Greatest Film of all time by Entertainment Weekly.

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Goofs

In the dancing scene with Georgia and the Lone Propector at first you see him holding the cane straight and trying to keep his trousers up with his right hand. After the scene change he is holding it upside down and he uses the bend part of the cane to keep his trousers up.

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Connections

Featured in The 44th Annual Academy Awards (1972)

User Reviews

A Worthy Silent Classic

This silent classic has many strong points - it has a lot of humor, interesting characters, a good story and good settings. It's the kind of film that shows how much a master film-maker can communicate in a silent movie. It overdoes the sentimentality on occasion, but other than that it's a fine film.

Chaplin himself plays the 'Lone Prospector', and he is joined by several other interesting characters in a frozen north setting that sets up some good adventures and drama. There are some memorable scenes in the prospectors' rickety cabins, plus some other good material.

The version of this that is the easiest to find is the one that Chaplin re-edited in the 1940's, adding his own narration and deleting the title cards, which gives it a slightly different feel. (These revisions probably make it a bit easier to follow for those who aren't used to silent films.) You can tell from Chaplin's narration how fond he must have been of "The Gold Rush", and he had a lot of good reasons to be pleased with it. There are a couple of his later films that might be even better and more timeless, but this one contains everything that defined Chaplin and his art.