Charlie Chaplin in "The Gold Rush" (1925)

During the Gold Rush, prospectors brave Alaska's dangerous Chilkoot Pass, hoping to strike it rich in the snowy mountains. Just as Big Jim McKay (Mack Swain) discovers gold on his claim, a storm arises, prompting a Lone Prospector (Charles Chaplin) to take refuge in a cabin. Unknown to him, the cabin's occupant is desperado Black Larsen (Tom Murray), who attempts to throw the vagabond Prospector out. Strong winds, however, repeatedly blow the little man back inside, and soon after, Jim is also swept into the cabin.
Jim fights with Larsen over his shotgun, and after Jim prevails, the Prospector claims him as a close friend in order to remain safe. Over the next few days, the three men live together uneasily, their hunger growing as the storm rages on. After eating the lantern candle, with salt, the Prospector worries in vain that Jim has eaten Larsen's little dog.
Finally, the men cut cards to see who will hunt for food, and the loser, Larsen, sets out alone. He immediately encounters two lawmen who are searching for him, and after shooting them both, steals their supplies and travels on until he happens upon Jim's claim.
Meanwhile, the Prospector and Jim grow so ravenous that they boil and eat the Prospector's leather shoe. Jim starts hallucinating, imagining that the Prospector is a large, luscious chicken. The Prospector shoots a bear, finally providing them with a meal.
Soon after, the storm ends and the friends part ways. Upon returning to his claim, Jim finds a well-fed Larsen, who knocks Jim out and flees but is soon killed in an avalanche. The Prospector travels on to Gold Rush City, where he falls in love with Georgia (Georgia Hale), a dance hall girl.
One day, Georgia teases the gullible Prospector by pretending to adore him. Although the Prospector shovels snow for days to earn enough money to prepare a lavish dinner, on New Year's Eve the girls celebrate in the dance hall, leaving the little man waiting in his cabin. He goes to the dance hall, but the girls and Jack have already left for his cabin to tease him further.
There, however, Georgia sees the dinner he has prepared and realizes her joke has gone too far. A few days later, Jim, who has partial amnesia and has searched in vain for his rich claim, recognizes the Prospector in the dance hall and joyfully instructs him to lead him to Larsen's cabin, which he knows is near his claim. After the Prospector declares his love to Georgia and promises to return for her, the men journey to the cabin, and discover Jim's claim, immediately transforming them into multimillionaires. They prepare to return to the mainland by boat. Unknown to the Prospector, Georgia is also on the boat, and after a journalist asks the Prospector to don his hobo clothes for a photo shoot, Georgia assumes he is a stowaway and tries to protect him from the ship's guards. Soon, the misunderstanding is cleared up, and the Prospector invites his love to his luxury stateroom, where he "spoils" a press photograph by leaning over to kiss her.
A 1925 American black & white silent comedy film written, produced, and directed by Charlie Chaplin, cinematography by Roland Totheroh, starring Chaplin, Georgia Hale, Mack Swain, Tom Murray, Henry Bergman, and Malcolm Waite. Shot on the back lot and stages at Chaplin's Hollywood studio, where elaborate Klondike sets were constructed.
The film stars Chaplin in his Little Tramp persona. Chaplin drew inspiration from photographs of the Klondike Gold Rush as well as from the story of the Donner Party who, when snowbound in the Sierra Nevada, were driven to cannibalism or eating leather from their shoes. Chaplin, who believed tragedies and comics were not far from each other, decided to combine these stories of deprivation and horror in comedy. He decided that his famous rogue figure should become a gold-digger who joins a brave optimist determined to face all the pitfalls associated with the search for gold, such as sickness, hunger, cold, loneliness, or the possibility that he may at any time be attacked by a grizzly. In the film, scenes like Chaplin cooking and dreaming of his shoe, or how his starving friend Big Jim sees him as a chicken could be seen.
The film was a huge success in the US and worldwide. It is the fifth-highest-grossing silent film in cinema history. Critically acclaimed upon its release, it continues to be one of Chaplin's most celebrated works. Chaplin cited it as the film for which he most wanted to be remembered. In 1942, Chaplin re-released a version with sound effects, music, and narration, which received Academy Award nominations for Best Music Score and Best Sound Recording. In 1958, the film was voted number 2 on the prestigious Brussels 12 list at the 1958 World Expo, by a margin of only 5 votes behind Battleship Potemkin. In 1992, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".