The Gold Rush (1925)
Grade: 92
"The Gold Rush" is an outstanding silent film. It is a comedy and is unusual in that all of the gags work. The film stars Charlie Chaplin, who also produced and directed it. Whether his intentions are to make you laugh or cry, he always gives you a good reason to do so.
The film can be divided into two parts. In the first half, Chaplin's tramp character is an Alaskan prospector who has to endure a life-threatening winter storm. He is also endangered by violent criminal Black Larson, and good-hearted but very hungry Big Jim McKay.
In the film's second half, the tramp quits prospecting for life in an Alaskan village. There, he courts local beauty Georgia Hale, who is already taken by playboy Hank Curtis. The second half is slightly better than the first.
The plot is very basic, but the scenes work very well on their own. One great scene has the hungry tramp eating his boot. In another famous scene, actually a fantasy, the tramp entertains his girlfriend by pretending a pair of potatoes are his dancin' feet.
The tramp character is the most famous of silent films. But in premise it is similar to the characters portrayed by Harold Lloyd or Buster Keaton. These characters were ordinary men, always optimistic and striving for something better, no matter how bleak their situation may become.
http://members.tripod.com/~Brian_Koller/movies.html
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