The Gold Rush

Set during the Klondike Gold Rush in Alaska, the film follows the Lone Prospector (Charlie Chaplin), a hapless gold-seeker who becomes lost in a fierce blizzard and stumbles into the cabin of Black Larsen, a wanted outlaw. Around the same time, a prospector named Big Jim McKay has just discovered a rich gold deposit on his claim when the same storm forces him into Larsen's cabin as well. The three men establish an uneasy truce to survive the cold. When food runs out entirely, they draw lots to determine who must brave the storm to find provisions; Larsen draws the short straw but instead murders two Mounties who are tracking him and flees. The Lone Prospector and Big Jim are left starving. In desperation, the Prospector cooks and serves one of his own boots, and the two men eat it with gusto — the Prospector carefully eating the nails like fish bones. Jim grows increasingly delirious from hunger and begins hallucinating that the Prospector is a giant chicken, chasing him around the cabin with murderous intent. Their predicament is relieved when a bear wanders into the cabin and they are able to kill it for food. After the storm passes, Jim returns to his claim but is attacked by Black Larsen, who steals his gold and then dies in an avalanche. The blow from Larsen's attack causes Jim to lose his memory; he wanders into the nearby boom town, unable to recall where his claim is located. The Prospector also arrives in town, where he encounters Georgia, a beautiful dance hall girl, and falls hopelessly in love with her. Georgia is kind but largely indifferent, using him mainly to make a jealous suitor named Jack jealous. The Prospector invites Georgia and her friends to a New Year's Eve dinner at his rented cabin, spending his last money on decorations and food, but Georgia forgets entirely, and he falls asleep waiting for them. The Prospector dreams of entertaining his guests, performing a famous bit in which he stabs two bread rolls with forks and dances them like little legs. When Georgia later discovers the untouched dinner and the gift he had prepared for her, she feels remorse and writes him a note apologizing and expressing warmer feelings. Meanwhile, Jim McKay recognizes the Prospector on the street as the man who can lead him back to his gold claim. He hires the Prospector as a guide. During a blizzard near the gold claim, they take shelter in the very same cabin the Prospector had rented — which, unbeknownst to them, has been blown to the edge of a cliff by the storm. The two men are nearly killed as the cabin teeters perilously over the precipice, but both escape in time. They locate Jim's claim, strike it rich, and become millionaires. A year later, as the now-wealthy Prospector is sailing back to civilization aboard a steamship — dressed in his old ragged clothes for a newspaper photograph — he accidentally falls down a staircase and lands at the feet of Georgia, who is also aboard. There is a brief misunderstanding (the ship's officer believes she is consorting with a stowaway), but once the Prospector's identity as a millionaire is revealed, the misunderstanding is cleared up, and the two are happily reunited.

Sources: Wikipedia