Personally, I believe that the '42 version flows better and ends on a more fitting note for The Little Tramp. Two scenes were drastically altered in the editing process, one of them being the ending. Watching the two cuts back to back, you'll see that they are very similar, but not at all identical.
KEVIN BROWNLOW THE WIND BLURAY MOVIE
When Chaplin made this cut of the film, the original negatives were so badly damaged that he had to cut this movie using takes different from the '25 cut since they were still in very good condition. In my humble opinion, the 1942 version is the way to go. There's no way of having the '25 cut exactly as it was back then, but this is the closest that we will ever get. A classical composer was also hired and designated with the daunting task of restoring Chaplin's original score all he had to go off was a giant box mixed with sheet music and notes scribbled on menus and napkins.
In 1993, Chaplin's surviving family commissioned a few Chaplin scholars to reconstruct the 1925 cut as close to the original as possible. Instead, the prints were sold off to private buyers. When Chaplin ordered that the '25 cut be destroyed, the studio didn't quite heed his command. Nearly every scene features something that can be deemed "iconic." Several of iconic Chaplin moments are featured in 'The Gold Rush,' my two favorites being "the human chicken" and the dancing dinner rolls – but don't mistakenly believe that those are the only ones. He immediately falls for a flirty girl in the local dance hall and the remainder of the film blends those two established stories. As hunger sets in, imagine the zany activity that can arise from this scenario.Īs you would expect, the Little Tramp gets on his way shortly thereafter and finds his way to a little town. Here we have a murderer, a large man and a little guy trapped in a cabin without food or any means of getting food. And where does he happen to find refuge from the blowing snow? You guessed it, the same cabin that the Little Tramp has found himself in. Nearby, a large fellow strikes gold with a nugget the size of a softball, but has to immediately evacuate when his camp is blasted to pieces by the wind. Little does he know that the grizzly man inside is a wanted killer. When the Tramp finally comes across a small cabin, he invites himself in for refuge. The snow-ball gets rolling for the little guy when he gets caught in the middle of a blustery storm. Instead of following the chain of gold miners into the wild, the Little Tramp wanders along the rocky passes on his own, completely oblivious to the dangers that surround him – be it bears, outlaws, cliffs, or deadly blizzards. In the opening sequence, we see a real-life recreation of the iconic Chilkroot Pass. He literally goes wherever the wind takes him. While everyone around him seems to be either mining for gold or profiting off those who mine for gold, the Little Tramp appears to be aimlessly wandering around. 'The Gold Rush' follows the Little Tramp into the Klondike smack-dab in the middle of The Gold Rush. Chaplin himself regarded the '42 cut as his definitive version, so much so that he later asked the studio to dispose of all cuts of '25 version since his new cut was more along the lines of what he wanted. Most extended editions aren't approved by the director, but the '42 version of 'The Gold Rush' is what Chaplin wished he could have made the first time around had technology permitted. The '42 version is nothing like the "extended editions" that we get on Blu-ray today Chaplin basically re-edited his own movie, omitted scenes and added a set audio track with a voice-over narration. Two cuts of 'The Gold Rush' are placed on this Criterion Collection Blu-ray: the original 1925 silent cut with a newly re-composed 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio version of the score, and Chaplin's 1942 re-cut featuring his own narration in place of the original title cards. The reason for this is simple – Chaplin's films brilliantly speak to every audience, no matter the age.
Despite the grandeur and complexity of the modern movies that she loves, she enjoyed this long-gone style just as much – if not more – than those titles found in the Hickman family library. Nothing compares to seeing and hearing your own child understand and laugh at the comedic timing of an 87-year-old masterpiece, enjoying an innocent style of classic filmmaking and storytelling for the first time. Viewing something as old and beloved as 'The Gold Rush,' I figured this would be a great reviewing opportunity to introduce my nearly-five-year-old daughter to the "Little Tramp" (Chaplin's character within the movie).
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