The Gold Rush (1925)

June 6 update

SIFF's programming department has confirmed they are screening Chaplin's 1942 re-issue version with the married soundtrack.

June 5 update: A word of caution…

I’d like to apologize for not recognizing this problem when I originally posted my preview. For anyone who has never seen this film my best advice is, do not go.
The 2006 SIFF catalogue lists the run time as 72 minutes. The 1942 re-release of The Gold Rush is listed as 82 minutes when shown at the correct speed for silent film. It was the first attempt by Chaplin to re-release his work in subsequent years. While the update includes a beautiful original score he wrote, it is also marred by Chaplin’s continuous voice-over narration and the exclusion of all titles as well as (and most regrettably) the final scene. It is a very rare example of the master ruining his own work. Adding insult to injury, when the film is projected at sound speed the run time is 72 minutes. If the 1942 version is in fact the one being offered, good advice would be to buy the original on DVD instead of wasting money on tickets to see a mangled masterpiece. How terribly disappointing SIFF isn’t screening the original, a beautiful film that equals nearly all of Chaplin’s other work. It certainly doesn’t contribute much to Seattle’s cred as a serous movie town. The Circus, screened last year, was left relatively intact in it’s re-released form, with a prologue and a new musical score added. Failing to distinguish this major difference in the two updated films also speaks volumns to our lack of sophistication as film goers in general. Anyone unfamiliar with the original 1925 version of The Gold Rush will leave these shows with a distorted impression of the film.

United States, 1925 (96 minutes)

Wednesday June 7, 7:00pm The Neptune
Saturday June 10, 11:00am The Egyptian

"You know this fellow is many-sided, a tramp, a gentleman, a poet, a dreamer, a lonely fellow, always hopeful of romance and adventure."
- Charles Chaplin

Since his birth at Keystone in 1914 Chaplin’s little tramp has been a symbol of the struggle and hope shared by all humanity. One of the last stops in his evolution was The Gold Rush.

A lone prospector (Chaplin) finds himself starving and without shelter in the snowy Alaskan wilderness. Caught in of a violent storm, he ends up at the door of a ramshackle cabin whose only inhabitant is the wanted criminal, Black Larson (Tom Murray). Another victim of the storm, Big Jim McKay (Mack Swain) finds his way to the cabin and the two intruders forcibly establish residence. Larson packs his things and leaves while the two interlopers narrowly avoid starvation as they wait out the weather. They struggle through a Thanksgiving meal of boiled boot

before Big Jim, in the midst of delirious starvation, nearly shoots Charlie while hallucinating that he is really a giant chicken. When the friends part company, Big Jim returns to his claim where he is robbed and assaulted by Larson, while Charlie wanders off to the nearest town. In the local saloon, the Monte Carlo, Charlie first sees Georgia (Georgia Hale), a beautiful dance hall girl and gazes at her with wide-eyed wonder as she literally looks right through him. She is pursued by Jack Cameron (Malcolm Waite) a ‘ladies man’ with a confident but brutal disposition. In an effort to force good behavior out of Jack through jealousy, Georgia invites Charlie to dance. "You see, I’m very particular who I dance with." Charlie struggles to retain his dignity and his falling trousers throughout the dance, but finally looses to a dog, whose leash he has unknowingly borrowed as a belt. He attempts to protect Georgia from Jack’s unwelcome advances. Jack toys with Charlie, and with his hat pulled over his eyes Charlie punches a post as a clock falls on Jack knocking him out, leaving Charlie to believe he has defended Georgia’s honor. The next morning Charlie manages to install himself as the caretaker of another miners cabin and before long the dance hall girls are at his doorstep playing in the snow.

Georgia secretly discovers her tattered photo under his pillow and playfully suggests he invite them to dinner. Elated, Charlie suggests New Year’s Eve, and the girls accept with no real intention of keeping the date. The smitten little fellow prepares for a party and patiently waits for the girls who never arrive. At this point, as the tramp dreams of what might have been, the film reveals one of the most touching and beautiful scenes Chaplin, or anyone else, ever conceived.
"Speech! Speech!"
"I’m so h-h-happy - Oh I can’t – "
"But I’ll dance the Oceana Roll."
In this one exquisite moment the essence of all that Chaplin was, is distilled down to its simplest and most revealing.
He wakes, realizes they are not coming and wanders off toward the sounds of singing in the dancehall while at the same time Georgia persuades the girls and Jack to pay Charlie a visit " …and have a little fun with him." Georgia discovers Charlie’s preparations in the empty cabin and with shamed remorse admits, "The joke has gone too far…"
Later, Big Jim returns with claims of finding a "mountain of gold" but due to amnesia he can’t remember where. Back in the dancehall, Jack sends a love note he received from Georgia to Charlie as a joke, with anticipated results. At the same instant, Big Jim sees Charlie and drags him off to the cabin believing he will now find his claim while Charlie professes his love to a bewildered Georgia.
The comic scenes between Chaplin and Swain serve as a brilliant counterpoint to the central story of unrequited love. The final hilarious cabin scene finds the two unaware they are teetering on the edge after a storm nearly blows the cabin over a cliff.
With their wealth assured, the two prospectors depart in style while Charlie ponders the tattered but now framed photo he treasures, "Everything but Georgia." With a beautifully played tableau of circumstance and surprise, The Gold Rush concludes as only Chaplin could have imagined it, with the sweetest screen kiss ever filmed.

Chaplin spent months in the Sierra Nevada Mountains filming in frigid, snowy weather and used only two short scenes for the finished film. Most of the snow seen in the film is actually rock salt. The original cast included Chaplin’s young wife Lita Gray, who appeared as an angel in The Kid(1921). Georgia Hale replaced her when she became pregnant. The boiled boot eaten by Chaplin and Swain for their Thanksgiving meal was actually made of licorice. As was his practice, Chaplin required numerous takes, which caused both actors to become violently ill. The "Oceana Roll" stands as one of the most popular images in screen history. Johnny Depp’s beautiful homage some seventy years later serves as proof of it’s enduring significance.