The Gold Rush

Warning! The streaming version is not the original!!
In 1942, Charlie Chaplin re-released his classic 1925 silent movie, "The Gold Rush", WITH SOUND! What does this mean? Well, there's a new score--not a big problem there; a lot of silent movies had scores written for them which were played by pianists in the theaters, or sometimes larger ensembles. This one is pretty corny. BUT--Charlie narrates the whole thing! He tells you each and every thing that is happening, and whenever a character opens his mouth, Charlie dubs in the dialogue with his own very, very annoying voice. The titles have all been removed.
I could only stomach this for about 12 minutes. If you rent or buy the DVD, you should be OK, because Criterion put the 1942 version on Disc 1, and the original on Disc 2, which was certainly a curious decision. I assume if you rent it you get both discs. But after looking around, I found you could rent the original as a streaming version on iTunes. So I spent eight bucks instead of four bucks to watch it.
Having said that,...

Classic
Chaplin at his finest. Several superb scenes that are classic film pieces -- particularly criterial for film and other communication students to see.

one of greatest movies ever
just really great movie. some of the funniest scenes you'll ever see. when you realize that many of the plot elements weren't cliches then, it's even better. always a joy to watch again

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