The Gold Rush

film by Chaplin [1925]

Written by Lee Pfeiffer

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Article History

The Gold Rush, American silent film comedy, released in 1925, that starred Charlie Chaplin and was set amid the Alaskan gold rush of the late 1890s.

The tale follows the adventures of Chaplin’s legendary Tramp character as he prospects for gold, fighting off wild animals and greedy competitors. As always, the hero also pursues a lover, is initially mocked and rejected, but triumphs in the end.

Already a major star by 1925, Chaplin developed The Gold Rush as his first starring feature film for United Artists, the new studio created by Chaplin, director D.W. Griffith, and husband-and-wife superstars Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford. The movie contains two of the most famous images of Chaplin: the starving Tramp preparing his boot as a hot meal for him and his equally desperate friend and the Tramp performing a dance with two bread rolls. It was for The Gold Rush that Chaplin most wanted to be remembered.