Georgia Hale

100 Years of… The Salvation Hunters

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Georgia Hale as The Girl

Made in 1925, The Salvation Hunters was Josef von Sternberg’s directorial debut. It was a total flop, and only picked up a bit interest after it was endorsed publicly by Charlie Chaplin (who encouraged his business partners Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks to go along with him). But in spite of newspaper advertisements tendering Chaplin’s personal seal of approval (“It’s a great picture and different”) it still refused to fly with audiences, who probably found its tone too didactic, its approach too abstract and its long scenes featuring people staring moodily into the middle distance too dull. They are right about all those things. But Chaplin’s point still stands. There is something important … Read more

100 Years of… The Gold Rush

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The Lone Prospector fights a dog for a bone

Charlie Chaplin’s most famous film, the one he wanted to be remembered by, is The Gold Rush. It was not only sensational then but it’s amazing how well it holds up now. Fashionable though it is to be slightly down on Chaplin these days, The Gold Rush is the one doubters should see – inventive, dramatic and funny, it’s well made enough to convince all but the most prejudiced. I’d urge the Criterion version on you if you’re going to shell out for a physical copy. It contains the 1925 silent original and also the 1942 re-release, which Chaplin re-edited, rescored and overdubbed with a narration (an approximation of newsreel bombast done by … Read more