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The Gold
Rush (1925)
In Charlie Chaplin's early silent classic, featuring
the Tramp's (Charlie Chaplin) trademark look: mustache, baggy pants,
bowler hat, cane:
- in the setting of the Alaskan Klondike gold rush
in 1898, the inventive, pantomime scene of two famished, marooned
fortune-seekers celebrating Thanksgiving Day dinner in their isolated
cabin: the starving Lone Prospector (Charlie Chaplin) and his large
cabin-mate and companion Big Jim McKay (Mack Swain); the Prospector
cooked his own boot in a large pot; he took on airs as if he was
a gourmet at a feast; when he served the shoe, he split the sole,
cutting it like a filet, and set the smaller portion before his
companion; Big Jim greedily switched the plates to get the upper
portion of the shoe; the Prospector delicately chewed on the lower
sole part, treating it like a delicate piece of fish as he picked
his way through the leather - he treated the laces like spaghetti,
coiling them about his fork; he daintily sucked the nails like
they were the bones of a game bird
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Thanksgiving Feast of a Boiled Boot
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The Tramp Hallucinated as a Giant Chicken
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The Cabin at Edge of a Crevasse
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- the scene in which Big Jim McKay during a blizzard
hallucinated that the Tramp was a giant chicken and chased him
with a gun
- the later scene of the teetering cabin on the edge
of a crevasse
- the comical dance scene with saloon girl (Georgia
Hale) in the Monte Carlo Dance Hall when he danced with her and his
pants kept falling down; he improvised with a dog's rope to create
a makeshift belt, until it chased a cat and dragged him across the
dance floor
- the Tramp's preparations for a charming, entertaining
New Year's Eve dinner party with Georgia and her friends, although
they never intended to attend and laughed at his foolish gullibility,
but he fell more deeply in love with her nonetheless; as 8 pm approached,
he had already set the table with lighted candles, table napkins,
and a heart-shaped place card at Georgia's seat, with "To My
Love" written on it; he dozed off while pathetically waiting
for them to appear; he dreamt of the party - becoming the perfect
host/entertainer; in a classic gag, "the Dance of the Rolls," he
speared two crusty French bread rolls with forks and made them do
a pantomime ballet-dance - the Oceana Roll; the two rolls were stand-ins
for his big boots
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Setting the Table
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Dreaming a Festive Party
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"The Dance of the Rolls"
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- after being awakened by a gunshot at midnight, the
scene of the lonely Tramp's hearing (in profile) of the singing
of "Auld Lang Syne" and knowing that he had been stood
up at his party
- in the closing, the Tramp - now a newly-made millionaire
(due to a gold-mine strike), was an elegant, well-dressed gentleman
on board a ship in first-class, returning home from Alaska; when
the Tramp fell off the deck during picture taking for a reporter's
story on his incredible rags-to-riches transformation, he tumbled
onto the steerage level where he encountered Georgia who thought
he was a stowaway; she offered to protect him but then, the truth
was revealed that he was a wealthy millionaire, and the film ended
with his fiancee Georgia having engagement pictures taken with him
- the photographer was perturbed that they moved to kiss each other
and spoiled the shot
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The Tramp in Alaska
The Tramp Meeting and Dancing with Saloon Girl Georgia
Falling Off Deck Onto Steerage Level
Rendezvous with Georgia
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