Film Worksheet – The Gold Rush

Film details:

  • The Gold Rush
  • Dir. Charlie Chaplin, 1925, USA, mins.
  • Written by Charlie Chaplin
  • Music by Charlie Chaplin (1942)
  • Studio: Charlie Chaplin Productions / United Artists

Cast/Characters

  • The Lone Prospector (Charlie Chaplin). The film’s main narrator and protagonist
  • Big Jim McKay (Mack Swain). The gold prospector
  • Black Larsen (Tom Murray). The ruthless criminal
  • Jack Cameron (Malcolm Waite) – the ladies’ man
  • Georgia (Georgia Hale). The dance hall girl
  • Hank Curtis (Henry Bergman). Prospector who lets Charlie Chaplin stay in his cabin

Key terms:

  • A film from the “Roaring Twenties” about getting rich – set in the 1890s Klondike – a tale of the frontier
  • Chaplin, The Little Tramp, Hollywood comedy

Worksheet questions:

  1. What do you make of Chaplin’s character in the film?
  2. How does Chaplin tell the story without the use of sound?
  3. How does Chaplin mix comedy and drama? To what effect?
  4. How does the film speak to its time – the Roaring (consumerist, materialist, get-rich-quick) 1920s?