, Charles Chaplin's second feature for United Artists, was the film by which, he said at the time, he wanted to be remembered. It is considered by most critics and directors to be one of the greatest films ever made, an epic, but with the delicate character touches that so characterize Chaplin's later work. Its setting and theme were suggested to Chaplin by two sources -- seeing a stereopticon slide of gold miners climbing the Chilkoot Pass in 1898 Alaska, and reading of the Donner party, who had to resort to cannibalism to survive their pioneering journey across the Sierra Nevada mountains in 1846. It is truly amazing that Chaplin could fashion one of his greatest comedies from these images of hardship and tragedy. Released in two versions by Chaplin, as a silent in 1925 and again in 1942 with a narration spoken by Chaplin and a wonderful music score composed by him, substantially changed in plot with regard to two of the major characters. The following synopsis is of the original version. In the frozen north of the 1890's a lone prospector (Charlie) rounds a snowy crag, unaware that he is pursued by a large bear, who ambles into his cave as Charlie trudges on. Next we meet Big Jim McKay (Mack Swain) who has just found and staked his claim on a mountain of gold. The elements are the co-star of the film, as a huge blizzard drives Charlie into the cabin of fugitive murderer, Black Larsen (Tom Murray). Emerging from hiding from a potentially dangerous intruder, Larsen tries to chase Charlie from the cabin but is blown out the back door by the furious wind as Charlie opens the front. They are soon joined by Big Jim, and a fight ensues when Larsen threatens the others with a shotgun. As Jim and Larsen struggle, Charlie energetically tries to avoid the shotgun barrel which always seems pointed in his direction. Big Jim wins the fight, and the three settle into an uneasy peace. After days of hunger, it is decided that the three will cut cards to see who goes for food. Black Larsen loses and bids farewell to the others. He comes upon the camp of two lawmen and in a shootout, kills them both and takes off with their supplies. On Thanksgiving day Charlie prepares dinner for Big Jim and himself, a feast of Charlie's right shoe.There follows one of the most brilliant and celebrated scenes in film history as Charlie feasts on the sole and consumes it as a gourmet would a sumptuous meal, twirling the laces like spaghetti, sucking the boot nails like bones and offering a bent one to Jim as if it were a wish bone, as Jim chews on the upper, clearly disgusted. Meanwhile, Black Larsen has found Big Jim's gold claim and has set to work filling a sled with gold. Back at the cabin the pair are hungry again, but Jim refuses Charlie's offer to cook the other boot. Instead, Jim's hunger-crazed mind transforms Charlie into a huge chicken, which he chases around the cabin until Charlie seizes what he takes to be Jim's fur-clad leg, but is actually the leg of a large bear. When it runs out of the cabin, Charlie grabs the rifle and shoots. Sending Big Jim out for the meat, Charlie busily sets the table. The end of the storm causes a parting of the ways, Charlie to the mining town and Jim back to his claim. He confronts Black Larsen there, who fells Jim with a blow from a shovel. Larsen escapes with the stolen gold, but the elements intervene and he is carried to his death as the cliff upon which he stands breaks off, plunging him into the chasm. Charlie arrives in town, selling his mining gear and proceeding to the saloon where he firsts sees Georgia (Georgia Hale), a dance-hall girl whom he is immediately smitten with. Ladies man Jack Cameron is there celebrating with the other dance hall girls but when he demands Georgia dance with him, she spitefully chooses the most unlikely of partners -- Charlie. As they dance, Charlie loses his belt and the famous baggy pants begin to fall. Luckily Charlie spots a nearby rope and ties it around his waist, only to find that the other end is tied to a large dog, who pulls the Tramp over when it takes off after a cat. Jack again confronts Georgia but Charlie intervenes. Jack pulls Charlie's derby down over his eyes and in the ensuing scuffle Jack is accidentally knocked out by a falling clock. Charlie, thinking he felled Jack with a single blow exits the saloon triumphantly. Charlie's next task is to find a place to live. Passing by the cabin of Hank Curtis (Henry Bergman), and smelling the food cooking within, he feigns unconsciousness. Kindly Hank carries him inside, stiff as a board,and gives him food and drink. Meanwhile Big Jim wanders aimlessly in the snow, suffering from amnesia due to the blow he had received from Black Larsen. Hank leaves the cabin in Charlie's care while he goes to tend his mine. Charlie, filling an oil lamp spills some of the fuel on his cloth wrapped foot. Georgia and her girlfriends, playing near the cabin, engage in a snowball fight. An errant snowball hits the cabin door and when Charlie opens it to investigate, he's hit in the face with another. He's delighted to see Georgia again, and she feigns equal delight. Invited into the cabin, Georgia finds her torn picture and the rose she had given Charlie under the pillow on his bed. She shows these jokingly to the others, and the girls make a fuss over Charlie when he returns from fetching firewood. One of them accidentally drops a lit match on Charlie's inflammable wrapped foot and he unknowingly places the burning appendage under her chair. When her seat begins to burn, Charlie douses the fire and puts his foot in a bucket of water. The girls depart, Georgia promising that they'll come to dinner on New Years Eve. In order to earn money for the dinner, Charlie shovels snow in town, piling it from one store front onto the next until he realizes that the last one is the jail house. On New Year's Eve, in the now festively decorated cabin, Charlie busily prepares dinner, while a celebration is going on in the nearby saloon. After setting the table with party favors and basting the roast, he sits down to rest and we next see him entertaining the girls, who are excitedly displaying their presents. Charlie, asked to make a speech, instead performs the brilliant "Dance of the Oceana Rolls,," one of the most enduring images in film history. He spears two dinner rolls with forks and uses them as dancing feet. In the darkened background his head and upper body seem to meld with the image and he elegantly dances, kicks, shuffles and splits, to the delight of the girls. When the performance ends, the image crossfades to a dreaming Charlie, who is alone in the cabin. On the stroke of midnight, Georgia and Jack are together in the saloon, ringing in the New Year. Georgia fires a pistol and the report awakens Charlie in the cabin. Realizing he's been stood up, he stands in his doorway listening to the strains of "Auld Lang Syne" coming from the saloon. He makes his way to the saloon, observing from the window the revelry within. Georgia remembers her promise and suggests that they all go to the cabin and have some fun at Charlie's expense. On their way out of the saloon Jack asks Georgia if she loves him; she says yes and they kiss. When they show up at the cabin, Georgia goes in first and seeing the party preparations, realizes that the joke has gone too far. When the others come in she chases them out, and when Jack forces another kiss, she slaps him angrily. The next day, Big Jim wanders into town and going to the assayers office, he unsuccessfully tries to stake his claim, but can't recall its location. He says that if he could find the cabin he could locate his mountain of gold. Sitting at a balcony table in the saloon, Georgia writes a note to Jack apologizing for her behaviour and professing her love. As Charlie wanders into the dance hall, Jack, who is sitting with the other dance hall girls, receives the note. Observed by Georgia, he disdainfully laughs and tells the waiter who delivered it to take it to Charlie who is overjoyed when he reads it and tries to locate Georgia. Just then he bumps into Big Jim who raucously tells Charlie that if he can take him to the cabin, he'll make Charlie a millionaire. An astonished Georgia watches as Charlie climbs to the balcony and bids her farewell declaring his love. Back at the cabin, this time well-stocked with food and drink, the two prospectors settle in for the night. During the night another storm blows the cabin to the brink of a precipice, a rope attached to the cabin and lodged in some rocks, the only thing which keeps it from plummeting over the edge. When the men arise in the morning, Charlie believes that the rocking of the cabin as he moves from end to end is due to his overindulgence the night before. They soon discover their predicament and in a hilarious scene, they attempt to escape from the teetering cabin. Finally safe on the cliff as the cabin falls, Big Jim discovers that the spot on which they're standing is his mountain of gold. On board a liner returning to America, Big Jim and Charlie are now multimillionaires. Asked to pose for press photographers in his old mining clothes Charlie repairs to his cabin to change. He gazes longingly at Georgia's gilt-framed photo; she was gone when he returned to the mining town. On deck, Charlie poses for the press. Asked to step backward, he falls to the deck below into a coil of ropes, beside which sits Georgia, returning to the States in steerage. Having overheard crew members discussing a stowaway for whom they're searching, Georgia assumes it's Charlie and she attempts to hide him. When he's discovered, she offers to pay his fare to prevent his arrest. The captain descends from above and identities Charlie as Big Jim's partner, the multimillionaire, much to Georgia's shock and amazement. Charlie tells his butler to prepare for a guest, and when a reporter asks who the girl is, his whispered answer elicits the pressman's congratulations. Asked to pose together on the upper deck, they look at each other and kiss. The reporter complains that they've ruined the picture (perhaps implying Chaplin's anticipation of criticism for ruining the film with a happy ending) but Charlie waves him away, and as he and Georgia continue their kiss, the scene fades out. The changes made to the film for the 1942 re-release -- eliminating the closing kiss, changing Georgia's note from a love note to Jack to an apology to Charlie, and cutting the scene where Georgia confesses her love for Jack, softens Georgia's character and lessens the importance of Jack's. The new ending has Charlie and Georgia making their way up the steps to the upper deck, and into a less-certain future, as the scene fades.