The tramp plays the lone prospector (Charlie Chaplin) who travels to Alaska to search for gold. The long journey has been hard on him and he seeks shelter in a cabin owned by Big Jim (Mack Swain). Big Jim has discovered that his cabin sits on top of a mountain basically made out of gold but keeps his discovery to himself. An escaped fugitive named Black Larsen (Tom Murray) comes to the cabin seeking shelter as well, but soon finds out about the gold. They end up getting into a big fight (in fact I'm pretty sure I saw a bear appear in the middle of it). It's during this fight that Big Jim gets knocked on the head knocking him unconscious and Black Larsen falls off a cliff (womp womp). Later, the lone prospector stumbles upon a mining town. He takes a job house sitting for a prospector and celebrates his job by going to the dance hall. It's at the dance hall that he meets Georgia (Georgia Hale). Although Georgia seems to be with another man, he falls in love with her. She later runs into him when she is with her friends. He invites them inside his house (or the house he is watching that is). The girls tease him but he mistakes this as interest and thinks that Georgia has fallen in love with him. They group makes plans to return to the cabin on New Years Eve to celebrate. The prospector is so excited. He is going to use New Years Eve as a chance to proclaim his love. He decorates his house and gets everything ready but the girls never show up. Instead, they are at the dance hall, and when Georgia remembers about the plan, they decide to play a prank on him. Georgia goes to the house and finds it empty except for a love note from the prospector. After knowing his true feelings she decides not to go through with the prank. Meanwhile, Big Jim wakes up and after suffering from amnesia, remembers the gold, but can't remember where it is. When he finds Chaplin, they head back to the first cabin in order to find it.
There is just something about Chaplin that is extremely loveable. Maybe it's the fact that he's an underdog. I'm not sure. What I do know that he is once again the gentle, naive, loveable loser that audiences fell in love with. This movie includes the famous "roll dance" that was my favorite part. It gave you a chance to see that not only was he a physical comedy genius, but he also did great work with his face which you don't see much in silent comedies. At times a bit absurd (but what old movie isn't?), I didn't really start to get interested in this movie until Georgia came into the picture (I'm a sap for rom coms I guess). There is this great scene when he first sees her and is trying to get her attention, but like any pretty girl he is ignored (no wonder guys are afraid of pretty girls. Those bitches). And then the last couple of shots were great as well. Chaplin really knows how to woo a lady.
Rating: ***
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