THE GOLD RUSH
starring Charlie Chaplin
MOTION PICTURE CLASSIC
September, 1925
"The Gold Rush" has depths unknown to Chaplin of "Shoulder Arms" and "The Kid." Makes you laugh to keep back tears, coming seemingly from a saddened and understanding heart. Simplest of stories: just a little tramp who wandered into the Klondike and fell in love with a music-hall girl. For a joke, she pretended to return his affection - and the joke went too far. With remorse came her own love. It is funny; also pitiful. Oddly enough, many critics and writers seem dubious; but directors and actors are crazy about it.
In points of artistic skill and subtle method it seems to me the greatest comedy ever made. The little tramp has starved and saved to give New Years dinner to music-hall girls and they forget to come. So he sits there alone and pretends they are at table with him. Here is the most brilliant bit of pantomime I have ever seen on the screen.
Everything is there; but depends entirely upon the public as to how much they will see. Before the picture was released we heard much of an "epic sweep" which promised to eclipse "The Covered Wagon." Charlie certainly used lots of people in the Klondike trail scenes, but I couldn't see much epic sweep.
THE GOLD RUSH
starring Charlie Chaplin
MOTION PICTURE MAGAZINE
November, 1925
The Chaplin of the funny shoes, the little derby, the mustache and the trick cane is back with us in a comedy which many will say is his greatest effort. It hasn't the hilarity of "Shoulder Arms" and "The Pilgrim," nor the smart subtlety of his directorial creation, "A Woman of Paris," but if you want a picture technically prefect in its blending of comedy and pathos, its satirical thrusts, its caricature, its keen lampooning of the northland melodramas, and its direction, you will find it here. Chaplin has brought forth some gorgeous touches of comedy, but it is the poignant note which takes the most emphasis.
For more information, see "The Gold Rush" as our "Feature of the Month"
Video source: Movies Unlimited, Amazon, Nostalgia, Facets, Critic's Choice