The Gold Rush (Charles Chaplin, 1925, USA)
Seeing The Gold Rush with live piano accompaniment in a theater from 1921 is probably the best way to experience Chaplin’s classic film. Following the success of 1921’s The Kid, The Gold Rush brought Chaplin’s “Little Tramp” character to new heights. Inspired by photographs from the Klondike gold rush, Chaplin took his inspired physical comedy to new heights with this film. Striking both for its level of physical comedy as well as the humanity at its core, The Gold Rush is considered by many not only the pinnacle of Chaplin’s filmography, but perhaps the pinnacle of silent cinema. Unfortunately, when the silent era began to be viewed with derision, Chaplin released the film in a truncated version with a constant narration throughout. Thus, many people never got to see the film in its true version. The original version gave more voice to Georgia Hale as Georgia, Chaplin’s love interest in the film. While there are tremendous set pieces of comedy (and some camera trickery that is quit...
