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| Charles
Chapin, Mack Swain, Tom Murray, Georgia Hale |
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Anamorphic
widescreen |
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Dolby Digital
5.1 |
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DTS |
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Trailer(s) |
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Featurette(s) |
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Documentary |
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Audio commentary
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Deleted scenes
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Concept art
/ storyboards |
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Multi-angle
feature |
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narrator (Charles Chaplin):
And the girls called for a speech. But he was too happy to speak.
All that mattered was Georgia was there: Georgia! So he muttered
and stuttered and finally said: "I can't make a speech but I'll
do a dance." And a dance he did, with the rolls.
The Tramp goes to Klondike in search
of gold and finds it and more.
 Half
a century before it became fashionable for directors to revisit
their past successes with altered director's cuts, Chaplin decided
to re-release his 1925 hit The Gold Rush at the height
of World War II, just two years after the phenomenal release of
his Hitler satire The
Great Dictator. His decision was all the more audacious for
the fact that this was a silent film which he intended to make
a nationwide hit over a decade after the introduction of talking
pictures. Chaplin attempted to improve on the original film in
a number of ways, but only partially succeeded. To be sure, the
re-release was a big success, embraced by wartime audiences for
its nostalgic appeal and timeless physical comedy.
But by replacing the title cards from the original version with
an almost non-stop voice-over narration, Chaplin badly overcooked
one of the finest silent comedies ever made. For rather than simply
filling in the blanks left by the absence of said title cards,
Chaplin's overly twee narration tends to describe all the on-screen
action in grandly redundant detail. Not only do his wordy descriptions
of 'The Little Fellow' distract from the impeccable comedic timing,
but they fatally distance the viewer from the film by their external
perspective and overly sentimental intonation. It is therefore
little wonder that the original 1925 cut is today by far the favorite
among critics and audiences around the world, although the 1942
version somehow remains the version of choice for the Chaplin estate. |
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A Region 1 DVD was originally
released by Image, with mediocre image quality. More recently,
the international distribution rights for Chaplin's feature
films have moved to the Paris-based MK2, which is releasing
double-disc DVD editions of his major work in collaboration
with Warner. The versions being released for Region 1 and
2 have identical contents, but the Region 1 versions suffer
from video errors resulting from poor PAL-to-NTSC conversion.
The Region 2 double-disc set from Warner/MK2 served as the
basis for this release.
The fullscreen image is
framed at its original aspect ratio of approx. 1.33:1. Of
the two versions Chaplin created, the 1942 reissue has been
labeled the preferred version by the Chaplin estate, and
this narrated version with orchestral score is therefore
featured on the first disc, while the original 1925 film
only appears among the extras on the second disc. Both are
restored versions, but the 1942 release looks a good deal
better, with less grain and better contrast, along with slightly
more detail. The 1925 version also looks perfectly acceptable,
though it does have a little more noticeable edge enhancement
and a generally more hazy look. (NOTE: The films in Warner/MK2's
new Chaplin Collection were transferred
from
the restored high-definition masters to PAL video. For the
Region 1 release of these DVDs, the PAL transfers were converted
to NTSC, resulting in many instances of ghosting, aliasing
and other conversion flaws. The Region 2 release therefore
boasts superior image quality to the American version. Read this
article for more information on the PAL-NTSC
issue.)
Both the original mono soundtrack and a new Dolby
Digital 5.1 remix are included for the 1942 reissue on disc one. The surround
mix adds very occasional directional effects but otherwise remains faithful to
the original sound, with decent separation of the voice-over narration from the
musical score, which sounds rather dated. The piano accompaniment of teh 1925
version
is presented in Dolby Surround, with a clean, lively sound, boasting excellent
fidelity.
With the bulk of the second
disc's bandwidth taken up by the inclusion of the 1925 cut
of the film, there isn't that much room left for other supplements,
but what's here is still strong enough to keep up with other
releases in the Chaplin Collection series. As with the other
releases, Chaplin biographer David Robinson offers a dense,
highly informative introduction, well-illustrated by
stills and captions. The main extra on the second
disc is a 25-minute featurette in
the 'Chaplin Today' series that accompanies most releases
in the Chaplin Collection. This diverting episode, while
not adding any essential insight or historical background,
focuses most strongly on African filmmakers, with its best
scene showing an African classroom full of young children
react to watching Chaplin for the first time ever with astonished
delight.
An unexpected treasure is to be found in the stills
gallery, which contains literally hundreds of fascinating
images divided into seven animated presentations. There's
also the usual collection of film posters containing
24 vintage international posters that span several decades.
Finally, four different trailers for the
re-release version have been included as well. A
succession of two stills from the film leads into the main static
menu screen, as with the other titles in the Chaplin Collection.
Dan
Hassler-Forest
Reviewed:
October 3, 2003
Click
here for IMDB info on The
Gold Rush.
Click here
to return to the front page.
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