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OPEN CLASSIC CINEMA · 651

The Gold Rush

192595 minUnited States

Comedy Adventure Romance

Synopsis

A solitary prospector arrives in the Klondike expecting a fortune and finds hunger, snow and unpredictable companions instead. Shelter in a remote cabin becomes a contest of survival, while a dance-hall encounter gives him a different dream to pursue. Chaplin turns the distance between grand ambitions and immediate needs into a romance built from awkward gestures and ingenious physical comedy.

Watch the film ↓

Video edition: Wikimedia Commons
Original language: No spoken dialogue. Intertitles: not identified.
This copy runs: 87:21
Subtitles: No subtitle track in this language

No spoken dialogue. Intertitles: not identified. No subtitle track in this language.

Languages and subtitles

No subtitle track in this language

Wikimedia Commons · Charlie Chaplin; The Gold Rush — Internet Archive [ dead link ] · Public domain

Cast

Charles Chaplin

The Lone Prospector

Georgia Hale

Georgia

Mack Swain

Big Jim McKay

DirectorsCharles Chaplin

Inspirations

Photographs of prospectors on the Chilkoot Pass and accounts of the Donner Party helped Chaplin develop the film. Historical hunger and hardship became the starting point for invented comic situations; this is a fictional story shaped by those sources, rather than a reconstruction of one prospector's life.

Behind the scenes

The original silent film from 1925 and Chaplin’s narrated 1942 reissue are different editions. Running times vary with the print and playback speed.

Reference: Chaplin Office · production history

Sources and availability

General references identify the work and its copy. A reference beside an editorial section is linked to the claims checked in that section.

Chaplin Office Chaplin Office · production history Wikipedia Internet Archive

Work catalogued as public domain in the United States.

The public-domain references concern the original films in the United States. Rights can differ for other countries, editions, restorations, music or translations. Sources are listed on each film page.

Availability checked on September 13, 2026.

Photograph credit

Photographs cropped, resized and optimized as WebP, displayed in monochrome.

Charles Chaplin — Strauss-Peyton Studio, 1921; published in Photoplay no. 3 (1922); National Portrait Gallery / Wikimedia Commons. · Public domain in the United States (PD-US-expired)
Georgia Hale — Charles Chaplin Productions / United Artists; The Gold Rush (1925), United Artists pressbook; Internet Archive / Wikimedia Commons. · Public domain in the United States (PD-US-expired)
Mack Swain — Witzel; J. Willis Sayre Collection of Theatrical Photographs · Public domain

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