What comes from watching Charlie Chaplin is noticing the simplicity of his films. Chaplin came around just at the right time, sound was not yet invented, actors could not rely on dialogue but rather their faces to convey emotion. Directors had to find ways to tell their stories visually, it was giving a voice to a new type of artform. "The Gold Rush" was the film, Chaplin created at the height of his powers, silent film was still dominant, and he was the biggest star in the world. Watching it again recently, I marveled at his simple story but how very complex it must've been to put it all together. It's filled with famous, and priceless Chaplin gags, and benefits from the kind of pathos he was known for.
There is a plot in "The Gold Rush" involving Charlie as a gold prospector, he holds up in a cabin with two husky and tough gentlemen, one is bad, the other is not so bad unless he gets hungry. The bad one is Black Larson (Tom Murray), a criminal wanted by the police, and the other is Big Jim (Mack Swain), a gold prospector who has just made his claim. Black Larson goes out hunting for food, while Charlie and Big Jim are forced to wait for him, all the while, their hunger becomes unbearable. This starts the film's first memorable comic set piece, the scene in which Chaplin eats his own shoe. The humor comes not just from the situation of one being so hungry, he must eat his own shoe, but it's also from the way Chaplin presents this gag. First we see him at the stove preparing the shoe as if he were a gourmet chef. He sits down with Big Jim and carves it like a turkey. The Tramp, ever the optimist never looks upset that he's eating the shoe, but treats it like he would a fine dining experience, serving up the laces as if they were spaghetti noodles, and eating from the morsels of the nails as if they were chicken bones. It's not just that we are witnessing a perfectly ludicrous and comedic scene, but we are somewhat transported into Chaplin's heart of his character, making the best out of a bad situation.
Meanwhile Big Jim, in contrast becomes mad with hunger and begins to imagine Chaplin as a giant chicken. This gag has become somewhat of a cliche; everytime we see a character who is hungry they would inevitably look at someone else that illustrates a certain meal for that person. It was said this particular gag was inspired by the Donner Party story about a group of pioneers who became trapped in snow and had to resort to cannibalism. If this inspiration were true, it would go to show how interesting the mind of a comedian works, having a tragedy such as cannibalism resort to a comedy of errors.
Pretty soon, the story shifts from the cabin, and Big Jim returns to his claim to find Black Larson trying to steal it. They fight, and Big Jim is knocked out, forgetting where his fortune is but having The Tramp help him in the end; meanwhile Larson is killed rather conveniently by the stormy elements. Charlie in the meantime, goes back to a gold prospecting town and falls in love with a girl named Georgia (Georgia Hale). Georgia is a dance hall girl who doesn't seem to notice him at first, but in a way to make her boyfriend jealous, she dances with Charlie who is smitten more with her image than with her.
The dance is a comedic ballet as The Tramp tries to keep his pants from falling down, hiking them up with his cane without Georgia noticing. Soon he finds a rope to tie around his pants, but he fails to see the dog also attached it, which causes a perfectly timed situation, one of those moments that doesn't require camera tricks such as coverage or many cuts, but done in one long take to see Chaplin effortlessly dazzle us with his physical comedy.
Later, Charlie invites Georgia and her friends over for a New Years Eve party, but he doesn't know that she does not really love him and is only using him for a malicious joke. But The Tramp remains hopeful fantasizing about the party and entertaining them with the "Dancing of the rolls". This is perhaps the most famous scene in which Chaplin takes two dinner rolls, sticks forks in them and dances them around the table like tiny legs. Again one of those moments that takes us out of the film but we don't seem to mind. It was a way to marvel at the artistry of an entertainer, like W.C. Fields who stopped his films occasionally to do a juggling act, or a Marx Brothers movie that gave room for Harpo to play his harp. We remember that comedians were above all entertainers, and moments like these were there because they wanted to perform for us, and we wanted to see them do it, the movie could wait. It was said that while "The Gold Rush" played in movie theatres, the projectionist would rewind the film back to the dance of the rolls as the audience demanded an encore performance.
As with most Chaplin films, there are moments of great pathos, this was something that always separated Chaplin from his contemporaries. When Georgia fails to come to The Tramp's party, he hears the rest of the town ringing in the new year and singing "Auld Lang Syne", Charlie is left alone. Chaplin, who was one of the great screen actors conveyed this type of emotion beautifully, and this was also a reason why he remained so popular; we could always sympathize with The Tramp, but we could also relate to him. The Tramp could be thought of as the first outsider in film, he looked, and acted different, he couldn't help being himself, but he longed to fit in and be with people who would usually not accept him. Chaplin could always contrast his comedy with pathos, but this scene best describes the way his kind of world viewed The Tramp.
"The Gold Rush" isn't a flawless film, it ends happily with Georgia somewhat redeemed as a nice girl who truly loves Charlie. Charlie famously re-edited the film in 1942 with a new musical score and a narration spoken by himself, I've never bothered watching this version, finding the narration unnecessary and annoying, but apparently there were scenes cut in this version that make Georgia more sympathetic towards The Tramp, perhaps one day I'll watch it to see if it's an improvement, but it is a rather minor flaw in the big picture.
Chaplin has said that "The Gold Rush" is the film, which he would most want to be remembered for, and perhaps it's true today, but I would wager he is more remembered for his full body of work that helped define cinema, which is worth more than just one film, no matter how great. However, I see how Chaplin could be particularly proud of this film, it's probably has his greatest string of gags more than any of his other films, and in a way he found the perfect comedic situation to show off his Tramp character. In my mind "City Lights" is probably still his greatest work, but "The Gold Rush" is the film I think of when I think of The Tramp. Whether it's the image of him eating his own shoe with such delicacy, or him dancing the rolls for the amusement of others, or his sad, longing face as he listens to the people who have rejected him singing "Auld Lang Syne, it's all you need to know about The Tramp in a nutshell, and he is timeless because of it, that is why he will never leave us, and why his indelible mark on cinema remains true today as it did back then.
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