The Gold Rush (Warner) (1925)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Introduction-Introduction by David Robinson Featurette-Chaplin Today Alternative Version-The Gold Rush - 1925 Version Theatrical Trailer-4 Gallery-Photo Gallery-Poster Trailer-The Chaplin Collection
Rating
Year Of Production	1925
Running Time	68:51
RSDL / Flipper	No/No Dual Disc Set	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4,5	Directed By	Charles Chaplin
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Charles Chaplin Mack Swain Tom Murray Henry Bergman Malcolm Waite Georgia Hale
Case	Amaray-Transparent-S/C-Dual
RPI	$34.95	Music	Gerard Carbonara Charles Chaplin Max Terr

    Inspired by some stereoscopic slides of the Klondike gold rush and the tales of the Donner Party, stranded settlers who resorted to eating their moccasins as well as their dead comrades, Charlie Chaplin set about making The Gold Rush in 1924. In this film, the Tramp heads northwards looking for his fortune. He is stranded in a cabin with two men, one of whom is Big Jim (Mack Swain), who has found a mountain of gold. After much in the way of hunger-related humour the Tramp finds his way to the local camp, where he meets and falls in love with dance-hall denizen Georgia (Georgia Hale).

    That's probably all of the plot that needs to be revealed, as the storyline is fairly simple. The film was, like most Chaplin films, a huge success. There are several scenes that are quite famous, most notably the dance of the rolls and the eating of the Tramp's boot, an effect realised by the use of custom-made liquorice boots. That's also Chaplin in the chicken suit. It is generally regarded as one of Chaplin's best.

    More strange then the decision of Chaplin to rework the film for a 1942 re-issue. The titles were removed and replaced with a narration supplied by Chaplin himself, and several sequences were trimmed or re-ordered. I find that the narration does not work very well, as it distracts from the visuals. Silent cinema is quite different from sound cinema. Where in sound cinema much of the narrative is driven by dialogue, in the silent form it is present only in what is seen on screen, and a different level of concentration is required to appreciate it. Adding dialogue and descriptions of the action makes that level of concentration almost impossible, and reduces the effectiveness of the original material. This for me is what happens with this film. Chaplin's attempts to be verbally amusing further undercut the original.

    Due to an oversight by Chaplin, the 1925 silent version did not have its copyright renewed, which means that anyone with a print of the original can release it on video or DVD. The 1942 version is still under copyright, so that is the official version on this release. Fortunately, the producers of this release have seen fit to include the original as an extra, and in my opinion this extra is the reason to buy this disc.

Video

    The film is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, close to the original 1.37:1, and is naturally not 16x9 enhanced.

    I am slightly disappointed with the quality of this transfer. At sight it looks to be very clean and in good condition, but gradually one becomes aware of the problems with it. It looks as though the film has had too much digital cleaning, which has resulted in a slight loss of clarity. While the image remains sharp in outline, expanses of the images that are of the same colour look unclear and pasty. This has not resulted in any excessive noise reduction artefacts but it means that objects in motion look slightly blurred.

    Also, you can often see slight variations in grey shading which indicate where film artefacts have been cleaned up, resulting in a sort of mottled effect. The range of greys on display is not too bad, and I did not notice any issues with the contrast. Shadow detail is acceptable.

    There is some occasional flicker due to variations in the quality of the source material, and some telecine wobble is evident.

    Given the short running time, the feature is contained entirely on a single-layer disc. The extra features appear on a second disc.

    Subtitles are provided in a legible white font and are quite close to the narration.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are three audio tracks. One is a German version, and the others are both English, in Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 respectively. I listened to the English 5.1 track, and sampled the default 2.0.

    Frankly, there is not much to distinguish the two tracks. There is very little in the way of directional effects, and almost nothing in the way of low frequency material. The only difference is that the dialogue in the surround version is more centrally located. The audio is reasonable for sixty year old audio, with no noticeable hiss or any other artefacts. It does sound a little thin at times, and I suspect that it is slightly attenuated due to noise reduction being applied.

    The music score is by Chaplin himself, with some assistance from Rimsky-Korsakov, Wagner and Tchaikovsky, though they are uncredited. It is quite a good score, and would have been even better without the voice-over.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Introduction by David Robinson (5:29)

    A brief but informative introduction by the Chaplin biographer.

Chaplin Today (26:55)

    A look at the film put together by Serge le Péron, and featuring Burkina Faso film director Idrissa Ouedraogo talking about the film. There is an excerpt of an audio interview from 1965 with Mary Pickford about the genesis of the film, and 1980 TV interviews with Lita Grey (in 1924 Chaplin's wife and originally to play the female lead) and Georgia Hale and her fake eyelashes.

The Gold Rush - 1925 Version (95:23)

    The original version of the film, with a piano score by Neil Brand. This version was restored by Photoplay Productions (Kevin Brownlow and David Gill), and while it is not quite as clean and bright-looking as the 1942 version, it plays better. I much prefer this to the reissue edition.

Trailers (8:47)

    Four trailers, in English, French, German and Dutch. The trailers are in reasonable condition but there are no subtitles for the three not in English.

Photo Gallery

    Something like 250 photos from the production, as well as some original photos of the Klondike gold rush.

Poster Gallery

    A handful of original posters for the film from various countries.

The Chaplin Collection (23:10)

    Excerpts from other releases in the series.

    The content of this disc is the same in every Region. However, it should be noted that the Region 1 version is a conversion from a PAL master to NTSC, and that the transfer has issues, in that there is ghosting and motion blurring as a result.

    The only official release of the 1942 version was a Region 1 disc from Image Entertainment, which is no longer available. This version was apparently not in as good condition as the new release, and contained as extras an earlier scenario about a gold strike, an interview with Lita Grey, some production records and a photo gallery.

    I have a Region 1 release from Koch which is of the 1942 version, but with the narration removed and a music score added, so it is effectively a bootleg. The score is just generic and was not written for the film, so frequently it does not fit the on-screen action. The transfer is not as good as the new one either.

    There have been numerous public domain releases of the 1925 version, including one in Region 4 which I have not seen, but I believe that this new release contains the best available transfer of the film.

    One of Chaplin's best regarded films.

    The video quality is not as good as it should have been.

    The audio quality is satisfactory.

    One of the extras is better than the feature.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall