THE GOLD RUSH
Starring Charlie Chaplin and Georgia Hale
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 and Georgia Hale
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.
THE GOLD RUSH
Starring Charlie Chaplin and Georgia Hale
PHOTOPLAY
September 1925
The long-awaited Charlie Chaplin picture, "The Gold Rush," is at last released, and it is an amazingly pleasant thing to see Chaplin once more in person upon the screen.
This new picture of his, which is the first ten-reel comedy ever to be sent out, is one of the best things Chaplin has ever done. The story is a simple and logical one, and some of the "gags" and situations are enormously funny. But the picture is, by no means, Chaplin's best.
Chaplin's individual performance as the lone prospector is, of course, a joy. His gay, pathetic little figure against the great backgrounds of ice and snow moves with all the Chaplin genius for touches of rare comedy and real pathos.
The scene in which Chaplin waits for the dance hall girls to come to dinner is delicately played and it is moving, but it is built upon too thin a premise and upon too unsympathetic an incident to afford the real heart-twist of "The Kid" or "Shoulder Arms."
The final scenes on the boat are among the best in the picture, showing Chaplin as the Alaskan millionaire who still clings to his habit of "shooting snipes."
No doubt everyone will enjoy this new Chaplin offering. It is Charlie Chaplin, lots of him, and it is filled with merriment. But that it is a great development in the comedy field, or that it brings a new comedy era to the screen, certainly is not true. It is simply ten reels of very good Chaplin comedy, which ought to be enough for anybody, but it is no more.
Viewed as a picture, it meets a high standard. As Chaplin's masterpiece, as the result of two years' work touted as a supreme effort, it falls short. But it is infinitely better than "The Pilgrim" or "The Idle Class."
For more information, see "The Gold Rush" as our "Feature of the Month"
Video source: Movies Unlimited, Amazon, Nostalgia, Facets, Critic's Choice