Basking in the success of his 1940 starrer The Great Dictator, Charles Chaplin decided in 1942 to revive one of his best silent films for a whole new audience. The film chosen was Charlie's 1925 classic The Gold Rush, which many observers had acclaimed his best-ever work. Removing the film's subtitles, Chaplin decked out the reissue prints with a musical score which he himself wrote, and a wry narration spoken by himself. Though the film was cut from its original 82-minute length to 72 minutes, the plotline remains the same, with The Lone Prospector (Chaplin) seeking wealth and romance during the Alaskan Gold Rush of 1898. Chaplin's shoe-eating scene, his "dance of the rolls", and the climactic high-and-dizzy routine on a lofty mountain ledge are standouts. The "new" Gold Rush differs radically from the 1925 version in one respect: Taking into consideration the criticism heaped upon him for the film's original ending, in which Charlie incredibly managed to win the girl of his dreams (Georgia Hale), Chaplin ended the reissue version just before the climactic romantic clinch, concluding the film on an ambivalent note. The Gold Rush proved an even bigger hit in 1942 than it had in 1925. Because Chaplin only renewed the copyright of the reissue version of The Gold Rush, the original silent version lapsed into Public Domain, making it the most available of Chaplin's major works.
![You've Got Mail/Must Love Dogs [2 Discs]](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/0883929579082_p0_v6_s90x140.jpg "You've Got Mail/Must Love Dogs [2 Discs]")
