The Gold Rush

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Template:Infobox Film The Gold Rush is a 1925 silent film comedy written, directed, and starring Charlie Chaplin in his Little Tramp role. He goes to the Klondike in order to find gold, and falls in love. The film also stars Mack Swain, Tom Murray, Henry Bergman, Malcolm Waite and Georgia Hale.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

One famous scene shows the Little Tramp, starving, having to eat his boot; another famous scene shows a house teetering on the edge of a cliff, before its occupants (including Chaplin) manage to scramble out.

The movie was originally released before the invention of sound film. For the 1942 re-release Chaplin composed and recorded a musical score and narration and tightened the editing. One sequence is altered so that instead of the Tramp finding a note from Georgia Hale's character which he mistakenly believes is for him, he actually receives the note from her. Another major alteration is the ending, in which the now-wealthy Tramp originally gave Georgia a lingering kiss; the sound version ends before this scene.

Image:TheGoldRush.jpg

Since the film was originally shot at 18 frames per second, the sound version, shown at 24 frames per second, is both shorter and faster than the original silent screenings. This has the side effect of making Chaplin's slapstick routines appear more frantic than before, a fact that had probably influenced Chaplin's decision to shoot Modern Times at silent speed.

Chaplin attempted to film many of the scenes on location near Truckee, California, in early 1924. He abandoned much of this, retaining only the film's opening scene. The final film was shot on the backlot and stages at Chaplin's Hollywood studio, where elaborate Klondike sets were constructed.

Lita Grey was originally cast as the leading lady. Chaplin married Grey in mid-1924, and she was replaced in the film by Georgia Hale.

The Gold Rush is the 5th highest grossing silent film in cinema history, taking in more than $4,250,000 at the box office in 1925. It was in fact the highest grossing silent comedy film.

Chaplin proclaimed at the time of its release that this was the film for which he wanted to be remembered.

The film has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

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