The Gold Rush

Matthew Solomon's study of Chaplin's The Gold Rush (1925) provides an in-depth discussion of the film's production and reception history, placing it in the context of the turn-of-the-century Alaska Klondike gold rush, and analyses the film's narrative and formal features, particularly its references to music-hall performance styles and tropes.

Matthew Solomon is Associate Professor of Screen Arts and Cultures at the University of Michigan, USA. He is the author of Disappearing Tricks: Silent Film, Houdini, and the New Magic of the Twentieth Century and editor of Fantastic Voyages of the Cinematic Imagination: Georges Méliès's Trip to the Moon.

Acknowledgments.- 1. A Film in Flux.- 2. An Unstable Text.- 3. The Total Film-Maker.- 4. Origins and Originality.- 5. The Work of the Artist and His Lawyers in an Age of Technological Reproducibility.- 6. 'The Lucky Strike'.- 7. A Northern Comedy.- 8. Historical Referents.- 9. Making by Halves; Two Premieres.- 10. Revising and Reviving.- 11. Second-Best Ever.- 12. Un/Authorised Versions.- 13. Memorable Sequences.- 14. Outtakes, Parallel Takes and a Triple Take.- Notes.- Credits.- Select Bibliography.